Mindfulness is a hot topic that has become more popular in recent years. However, many executives and professionals struggle with their level of mindfulness at work. Are you usually aware of the present moment, in a non-judgmental way?
In this episode, you will learn more about the essentials of mindfulness. Our host and CEO Porschia, alongside our guest, Alicia Ramsdell, will also share their insight on the significance of mindfulness in your career.
They will also discuss how to more effectively manage your thoughts, emotions, and energy levels. The conversation also includes more detail on what organizations can do to support their employees with mindfulness at work.
Alicia Ramsdell is a powerhouse career and mindfulness expert, TEDx speaker, and CEO of Mindful Career Path, LLC. With over 15 years of experience in Corporate America, Alicia has cultivated a life by design in Career Development roles, and is a Certified Career Services Provider, Global Career Development Facilitator, and certified in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction techniques.
What you’ll learn:
- What mindfulness is and why it’s important in the workplace
- The biggest challenges executives and professionals have with mindfulness at work
- Tips on how to be more mindful in your career
- Practical techniques you can use to help with your own mindfulness at work
- How companies can increase the levels of mindfulness employees have within their organizations
As a thank you for listening to this episode of the Career 101 Podcast, we are sharing our FREE master class – Career 911: Solving the Top 5 Challenges Executives and Professionals Have! It’s a training based on solving the common problems our clients have experienced to reach their goals. You can get access to the master class here!
Episode Transcript
Porschia: [00:00:00] Today we are talking about Mindfulness 1 0 1 Mindfulness at work with Alicia Ramsdale. Alicia Ramsdale is a powerhouse career and mindfulness expert, TEDx speaker and CEO of mindful career path LLC. With over 15 years of experience in corporate America, Alicia has cultivated a life by design in career development roles.
And is a Certified Career Services [00:01:00] Provider, Global Career Development Facilitator, and Certified in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Techniques. She provides invaluable insight into career development strategies, while also leveraging stress to elevate your life’s work. Alicia’s main priorities include captivating audiences as a keynote speaker, revolutionizing career development as a corporate partner, and empowering individuals to achieve career fulfillment as a career coach.
Her recent TEDx talk in York Beach, Maine, Don’t Be Afraid to Fail in the Career of Your Dreams, Be Afraid to Succeed in the Career of Your Nightmares, is an inspiring reminder to pursue your passions. Fearlessly. Hi, Alicia. How are you today?
Alicia: I’m doing well. Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Porschia: Great. I am excited to have you with us to discuss mindfulness at [00:02:00] work.
But first we want to know a little more about you. So tell me about seven year old Alicia.
Alicia: This is taking it way back. Yes. When I was seven years Yeah, seven years old, I used to dream about becoming a veterinarian and, Q middle school and you have to dissect a frog. I realized I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.
And I started to question, is this really, the good option for me moving forward? And I even tried to work at a kennel. one summer in high school, to explore that idea further. But I found myself feeling really sad seeing dogs in crates. And then I was also terrified of any dogs that had a tendency to bite.
So it became pretty clear to me that I wasn’t cut out for the veterinarian job. But something that probably my closest friends didn’t know at the time, or even my family members didn’t know at the time, I really [00:03:00] enjoyed being on stage when I was younger. So whether it was for a band, or chorus, or even participating in, the senior high school shows, I always felt a special connection to the spotlight.
And now I 100 percent admit I have very limited talents in singing or dancing, but there was something that was deep inside of me that yearned to inspire and captivate an audience from the big stage. And it’s funny how life works. Because that passion in performing actually came full circle later in my career.
As you mentioned, when I got the opportunity to share my message on the TEDxAge. Wow.
Porschia: Alicia, one thing to, to go back to the vet dream. I also wanted to be a veterinarian. And I’ve heard a few of our guests had that as one of their first job. Potential as [00:04:00] well. Yeah, I didn’t really like the blood of it all.
But I just think, it’s probably the fact that, just that compassion for animals and wanting them to be well and all that good stuff. And yeah, I can definitely see how your Passion and sharing that as a speaker kind of goes along with that spotlight that you liked as a kid.
So that’s great. So what did you want to be after we realized that the vet thing might not work out? What was number two?
Alicia: So I, I don’t know what my aspirations were beyond that. So high school for me was, I was more focused on what I was good at and not so much focused on, the dreams of what I wanted to be.
So my first job out of college and graduate school were in [00:05:00] accounting and tax. It was actually at a public accounting firm. And I, to be honest, I knew from the beginning that it wasn’t going to be the right fit for me, but it became a case of situational chance. I, and a lot of hard work, of course, but by chance, my situation had me.
Naturally good at math. And then by chance, my situation had that I was local to a business school that family members had attended before me. And they had a really good accounting program and by chance, my situation had it that a family member ran a public accounting firm, which is where I worked after college.
And then beyond that, by chance, a recruiter reached out to me. Out of nowhere while I was working in that public accounting firm, and there was an opportunity to work for an incredible organization, and they were looking for somebody with public accounting experience. So, fast forward 10 [00:06:00] plus years.
I was still at that same company, right? So my situation, I guess from high school and beyond, just put me in this safe career path. And I never really took the time, if I’m completely honest, with exploring opportunities out of these given situations. And just to add to that, just based on where I’m at now, nowadays, people will often talk about, being a culture add to an organization, but I like to turn that perspective around and emphasize that it’s important to find an organization that adds value to your life and that aligns with your goals.
And when you do that slight shift with your perspective, and to consider the role that brings. Value to your future self. You could really start asking those right questions and getting answers that truly matter. And it’s something, of course, I, if I, hindsight 2020, I look back and I say, I wish I had [00:07:00] that perspective, as an 18 year old kid, but I didn’t.
And I’m grateful. I’m at where I’m at now to help, high school students and beyond with that perspective shift. So
Porschia: what motivated you to start your business?
Alicia: A lot of experience. So I think
I’m trying to think of how to frame it, but when I think about the experience that I had in my corporate America days I really started with what were the expectations of others, and I didn’t really think My dreams, my aspirations. And I stayed in this safe, secure path for so long. And beyond that 15 years is a long time to be in something that you really don’t experience fulfillment.
So [00:08:00] two, defining moments in my life about start choosing to start my own business was one. I started to have conversations with my own kids about the importance of following their dreams. And not letting anyone’s expectations hold them back. And it made me realize that I wasn’t living that same truth.
And the second probably defining moment when I decided to start my own business was realizing that I was closer to my ideal retirement age than I was to my college graduation date. And it became clear at that moment that I couldn’t keep putting off pursuing a career that truly fulfilled me. And so when I think about my experience in my corporate America days, I wanted to be able to work with individuals.
to show them that career fulfillment was possible. That was number one. And that [00:09:00] two stress is inevitable in your careers. So instead of trying to run from that, I want people to learn how to leverage that. And I did that in my own way by learning more about mindfulness based stress reduction techniques.
As well as organizational mindfulness. So it was really a combination of my own experiences and also who I wanted to show up in front of my kids who I knew were watching every move I made. Wow. And.
Porschia: There was a lot there, Alicia. A lot of really good things to follow up on what you were saying about stress.
I love what you said and we had a burnout expert on the podcast recently, and she was talking about the difference between stress and burnout. And similar to what you were saying, stress is necessary sometimes to get. Things done right when it carries over into burnout is when it’s a [00:10:00] problem.
So why did you decide to focus on mindfulness as part of your business?
Alicia: So I knew that I wasn’t alone in feeling stressed in my career. I had, many conversations with colleagues who were dealing with this overwhelming mental chaos. And a big part of the problem was the stress from their jobs, from their careers, was seeping into their personal lives, similar to my own experiences.
And I thought there must be a better way. Other than trying to pretend it doesn’t exist or just grind harder at work, right? There had to be a better way. So initially, and quite honestly, selfishly, I was looking for an answer on how to leverage the inevitable stress. That came along with my own career.
But once I realized the greater impact that mindfulness could have on everyone in their careers, I became [00:11:00] inspired by an almost intrinsically motivated by the possibilities. So. I started to imagine a world where if you were walking in on a Monday morning from your commute, imagine seeing people smiling on their way to work, rather than their heads down or distracted or stressed out.
Porschia: Yeah. I wrote down something that you said, Alicia, that I thought was It’s really powerful. You mentioned the overwhelming mental chaos that was seeping into people’s personal lives. And I think, I know I’ve definitely had that experience and I would say probably at least 80 percent of the clients I’ve spoken with have had that experience.
So yeah, that draw to mindfulness I think is just a great connection for you to put with the career work that you do. So mindfulness seems to be a buzzword right now, but for those who don’t know, what is the definition of
Alicia: mindfulness? [00:12:00] So very simple definition is just being aware of the present moment non judgmentally, right?
A lot of the times we are experiencing our self talk and at the same time we’re judging it. So we’re in a moment, we’re experiencing the moment, then we’re experiencing our self talk and then we’re experiencing the judgment of both the self talk and the experience. And just think about how many moments we have in just one day.
That’s a lot to consume mentally, emotionally. So again, mindfulness is just being present, being aware in this moment, nonjudgmentally. And if I could add one thing to my own experience, if that’s all right, one, yeah, one of the biggest challenges I faced in my own career was realizing that, I couldn’t just wait [00:13:00] for my stress levels to subside.
I think that’s what I was trying to do during certain aspects of my career and in, in many areas of my life, I understood. It’s important to train, it’s important to constantly improve, right? Whether that was being in better physical shape or, learning new concepts for work, I knew that I had to train, and then I knew I had to apply what I learned in my daily life.
However, for some reason, when it came to stress, I was naive in thinking that, I didn’t need to train my awareness. I didn’t need to learn how to keep my body in that neutral state, regardless of the circumstances at my job. And that’s when I started to really focus my energy on mindfulness.
Stress reduction techniques and of course incorporating mindfulness into my own organization later on. Yeah. [00:14:00] So
Porschia: your company is called Mindful Career Path. Can you tell us more about how mindfulness shows up in someone’s career?
Alicia: So in the grand scheme of the world right now, it’s very fast paced.
It is an ever increasing mental challenge in all of our lives. If you think about our brains, they’ve evolved over millions of years. But now we’re in a society that everything’s changing at an exponential rate. We have to use complex tools. We have uncertain outcomes. And all of this can be mentally and emotionally exhausting.
So this exhaustion can impact our overall well being, right? Specifically, you and I are talking about in careers, but also just in our lives. And it can, this exhaustion has an impact on our productivity, our performance, the way we show up in our relationships. And if we want to thrive [00:15:00] in our everyday lives or, in the future too, we have to develop skills and mind and brain and energy management.
And this is going to form that mental strength, that emotional strength. And I already alluded to this, but we know that having a healthy diet is important. We know that having regular exercise is important. And we know that sufficient sleep is important for our physical health. And these are good for our mental health as well, but they’re not enough to build up this mental resistance, mental resilience in the world that we live in, because there’s a lot of confusion in our world.
There’s a lot of distraction, stress and negativity. We have our cell phones at our hips during work and during our regular lives. And there’s a lot of distraction and negativity right from those phones, although there’s a lot of brilliance to those phones, there’s still those other negative sides to so mindfulness [00:16:00] shows up in our career because we want to consciously address.
Our mental and emotional strength and how we show up every day, whether you’re an executive, whether you’re a new professional right out of college, we want to equip ourselves by with the skill sets to navigate. the complexities of our modern life and how we show up each and every day. And mindfulness really helps build these strategies to manage our thoughts, our emotions, and then our energy levels too, so that we can be effective.
Porschia: I love that. Manage thoughts, emotions, and energy levels. That I think is really powerful. So you mentioned a lot there, Alicia, in terms of, distraction and negativity from just, cell phones and I’m sure, the internet technology, all of that. [00:17:00] But from your perspective, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve seen executives and professionals have with mindfulness at
Alicia: work?
So I look at it as. Taking too long or waiting too long to lead by example, again, whether you’re an executive or an employee, only a few years into your role, but it’s common to hear nowadays about the importance of prioritizing our well being or even just this. Taking a moment to be aware and [00:18:00] reflecting on your career journey.
But where I see clients lacking in a sense is they lack the accountability to take those actionable steps and follow through on these priorities. So specifically relating to mindfulness, if we don’t take the priority, or if we don’t take the time to prioritize our wellbeing or setting boundaries in our work, in our personal lives, Or even prioritizing, growing in our careers, being more aware and present about what we want out of our careers.
Our career aspirations will be dreams, just dreams, and they will never be realities. And if we could lead by example, it can be a domino effect, right? Once one person starts to lead by example, others will start to feel more comfortable in following their footsteps. And I really and not to put pressure on leaders, but I do believe it starts from the top [00:19:00] and leading by example can have this profound impact on any organization.
Porschia: So what are some other tips or recommendations you would give to people who want to be more mindful in their careers? If you want to keep
Alicia: it simple, it’s when things start to get overwhelming at work or these deadlines are looming and, you’re starting to feel this energy, within you.
Take a moment to pause and recognize what you’re feeling and sit with it for that moment. Don’t judge it, recognize it, be aware of it and let it be beyond that. There are many breathing techniques that if things Do you start to become overwhelming and I’ve experienced panic attacks before and so forth, but there are breathing techniques that you can [00:20:00] use to bring yourself back into the present moment, and I can go over just a few, but, there’s what’s called box breathing, where if you think about the shape of a box, you breathe in through your nose for a count of four.
You hold for a count of four, you breathe out through your mouth for a count of four, and then you hold for a count of four, and then you continue to repeat that, and it just allows your energy levels to get back to a neutral state, which is what you’re looking for, that neutral state so that you’re not really high on your highs or really low on your lows, but a neutral state Within your career.
There are things that you can do before a presentation. If you get really overwhelmed, the 1 technique, where you look around your [00:21:00] current area and say, all right, what are 5 things that I can see? What are 4 things that I can touch? What are 3 things that I can hear? 2 things that I can smell? And 1 thing that I can taste?
And what this does is it grounds you in the present moment because while you’re doing this with your five senses, you don’t have time to think about what you were worried about from the past or worried about what’s going to happen in the future, but allowing yourself to be present in the present moment can have a really profound impact on your energy levels and what you’re going to bring to your career in that moment.
And then from an overall organization standpoint, something that I learned in my organizational mindfulness certificate program was that there are, I think, [00:22:00] eight fundamental building blocks in mindfulness. And those eight things are your mental strength, your attitudes and mindsets, a positive mindset, a growth mindset, an optimistic explanatory style, grit, emotional self management, and resilience.
And I know I said a lot there, but if you think about the common theme for all eight of those things, it’s just your attitude towards that present moment and how you bring yourself to that present moment without judgment. You don’t have to do it with negativity. You don’t have to do it with fear. It’s I accept the way the situation is at this current moment, and I’m ready to accept the accountability and responsibility to push forward [00:23:00] in a strong way.
And there’s so much more to those fundamental building blocks. But given the timeframe of this episode, I want to be mindful, aware of taking up too much time.
Porschia: I love those. I love those. We’ve got box breathing, the 5, technique, and then understanding the eight building blocks of organizational mindfulness.
I think those are great things to be aware of. I’m sure we’re going to have some people go back and listen to this episode twice to make sure that they are present. Alicia, to all that you have shared so let’s say someone, starts implementing, those tips and recommendations, a common question I get in different ways on different topics would be something along the lines of how long do you think it would take for me to start seeing positive changes associated with mindfulness if I, follow those recommendations?[00:24:00]
Alicia: I think it depends on. Your intrinsic motivation to get to that next level, you know for a long time I didn’t I never even considered Meditation, but there came a point called it’s called my breaking point where I said something needs to change and I can’t just allow the stress to consume who I am and who I show up every day as So I think the time frame is dependent upon the person and their desire to quote unquote, make this work for them.
But what I’ve seen with clients is that when they are ready and then they start to put this practice into place, it can have a pretty quick turnaround.
On how you show up day to [00:25:00] day, and the beauty of it is you start to trust the power of your intuition for so long. I had intuition about certain things, but I didn’t trust my intuition about certain things, and I would pretend it didn’t really matter. And maybe I was over analyzing something. But that.
Belief that you wanted to get better putting in the practice. with the mindfulness based stress reduction techniques, it can quickly happen and you start to trust yourself and the power of your intuition. And that’s where I’ve seen a big difference in a big shift in my clients. But again, that timeframe is more about what’s the timeframe it takes for you to realize that you really want it.
And that you’re going to commit to putting these practices in place.
Porschia: So, Alicia, to look at [00:26:00] this from another angle, how can companies increase their employees level of mindfulness at work?
Alicia: Again, I believe it starts from the top. So, whether that’s executives, Start to have conversations about stress levels, an open door policy about talking about the stressors in someone’s life.
And then obviously there’s training that goes beyond goes along with this, but having the training to understand what are some mindfulness based stress reduction techniques, whether that’s body scan, whether that’s walking meditation. Whether that’s even just walking meetings, right? Just walking side by side with somebody, not specific to mindfulness, but just walking side by side with somebody in stride with them and having a conversation.
You, you already feel this bond, a different kind of bond with somebody rather than just sitting around a conference table, [00:27:00] right? So, Having leaders trained on mindfulness based stress reduction techniques, having them trained on how to bring mindfulness into the everyday, into the organizations, allowing people to explore their vulnerabilities and be able to talk about their stressors in life.
And then. Having those leaders lead by example, prioritizing their well being, taking time and a meeting, maybe to do, the 5, technique before they start their meetings, maybe even having, if a leader feels inclined to, maybe having them lead breathing sessions or meditation sessions, or if they don’t want to lead it, using recordings, meditation recordings to have these sessions internally within their organizations.
But again, leading by example [00:28:00] is the key here because if the leader doesn’t believe it, or the leader doesn’t show that there is proof within the process. Of once you do this, there’s more productivity levels, more resilience, better relationships internally. Others won’t either believe it, or they’ll be too afraid to show that they want to give it a try.
So, again, leading by example is a huge piece of this and then the training that goes behind understanding the specific techniques and exercises will benefit, the entire process. Great.
Porschia: So tell us more about your business.
Alicia: So mindful career path is a combination of career development with mindfulness based stress reduction techniques, right?
We’re here to help you make career fulfillment a reality, but also are aware of the [00:29:00] fact that like we’re talking about stress is inevitable in your careers. So we want to build the confidence within you to say, I’m not just going to try to. Deal with stress or even run away from stress. I’m going to try to run through stress and leverage it on the other side.
And the majority of our work is with corporate clients. Nowadays. I also work with individual clients. But the corporate client space I have found really rewarding because I imagined myself back in my corporate America days, having the opportunity to work with. an external coach and having the opportunity to be more vulnerable than if it was somebody internal.
And I really pursue my role as CEO of Mindful Career Path with the thought of one day my own kids will [00:30:00] be in this particular setting and I want to show up as the coach that I want my own kids to have one day. Great. So we’ll
Porschia: be providing a link to your website and other social channels in our show notes so people can find you online.
But what is the best way for someone to get in
Alicia: touch with you? If you go to mindfulcareerpath. com, that has all of my social media outlets. LinkedIn, I’m on an uncomfortable amount of days, an uncomfortable amount of time. So you can obviously reach out to me on LinkedIn. And those are probably the two best ways to get in touch with me.
Porschia: Perfect. And since you are a career coach as well, Alicia, I want to ask, what is your definition of career success?
Alicia: Knowing who you are and what is essential and what you want is essential in [00:31:00] reverse engineering your path to the point in your life where you can say, this is what career fulfillment looks like.
And it’s important to note that definition can vary for each individual. But the commonalities for everyone is knowing who you are and what you want.
Porschia: My last question for you, Alicia, that we ask all of our guests is, how do you think executives or professionals can get a positive edge in their career?
Alicia: Well, a common theme throughout this conversation was lead by example, so consider your expectations based on your set of values, whatever those are, and lead your career accordingly. So if you know that building relationships is crucial, make it a point to regularly connect. with your colleagues. If setting boundaries is important to you, take the time [00:32:00] to identify your limits and then stick with them.
And if stress management is a priority, educate yourself on mindfulness based stress reduction techniques. Call me. No, I’m just kidding. And incorporate, those strategies into your daily routine. That lead by example is crucial and not just your own career. But other people that are influenced by how you show up every day.
Alicia,
Porschia: you have shared a lot of wisdom with us today, and I’m sure that our listeners can use it to be more confident in their careers. We appreciate you being
Alicia: with us. I appreciate this opportunity, and thank you again. [00:33:00]
