Client Case Study

FROM PERFECTING TO POSITIONING.

Sara Boland walked in confident but stuck: a communications leader who could champion anyone's value except her own. She walked out with a durable skillset and a signed offer letter for Director of Communications at Venus.

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Sara Boland, Career Evolved client

Watch Sara's story

The Challenge

A comms leader who wrote other people's value propositions for a living but froze when asked to articulate her own. Perfectionism and a fear of hearing no kept her circling instead of committing.

The Shift

The doctor framework: keep your mouth closed and diagnose before you prescribe. Sara anchored every conversation, from a nine-layer interview process to the dog park, in listening first.

The Outcome

Signed offer letter for Director of Communications at Venus, landed through a nine-layer interview process and timed to start four days before her self-set birthday deadline.

Olivia Gamber

A Note From The Founder

Olivia Gamber, CEO

Sara came to us already knowing she was ready for a change. That is rarer than people think, and it is also its own kind of trap. She did not need help writing a resume. She had built a career writing other people's words, other people's value propositions, other people's keynote speeches. What she could not do was write her own.

When we first talked, she used a phrase to describe herself: eldest daughter, hyper-perfectionist. I remember thinking, this is going to be the real work. When you are the product, it is almost impossible to detach and look at yourself objectively. You are never quite ready for the market, because ready implies finished, and Sara did not do unfinished.

The work with Sara was never about confidence. She had that. It was about resonance, about learning to keep her mouth closed long enough to actually hear what a room needed before trying to be relevant to it. It was about letting no be survivable instead of catastrophic.

What she built over these months was not a job search. It was a skillset she is still using, in interviews, in networking rooms, at the fishmonger. She signed her offer letter for Director of Communications at Venus. But the bigger win is the one she named herself: this was never about being saved. It was an investment that will keep paying her back for the next decade of her career.

THE COMMS LEADER WHO COULDN'T SELL HERSELF

Sara

I wasn't looking for a recruiter to help me fix my resume... I knew what I was good at. I do communications for a living. I know how to write a resume, right?... But that wasn't going to get me where I needed to go or where I wanted to go next professionally. It wasn't going to help me accomplish my professional goals.

I was really looking for a program that would help me build a skillset that I believed deeply that I needed, not just for the process of figuring out what I wanted to do next professionally, but also what I wanted that skillset would serve me in my next leadership role.

Olivia Gamber

I know when we met, you use the term eldest daughter, hyper-perfectionist and all that intensity... when you're the product, it's almost like hard to detach and look objectively and then not ever think you're ready for the market. So for you, how did you shift out of that perfectionism into, okay, I'm just going to start and just go.

Sara

I am absolutely an eldest daughter and I'm absolutely a perfectionist... but some of that is also tied into some pretty real limiting beliefs. Some of which probably many eldest daughters have.

“No is a very scary word for a perfectionist. I had to just start to accept that the more repetition you do, the less no is scary.”

THE DOCTOR FRAMEWORK

Sara

One of the very first conversations that Olivia and I had was about executive presence... You literally said to me, the first part of the doctor framework requires you to keep your mouth closed and actually listen. That was a really important, anchoring in that was really important for me.

I was able to anchor back in, tell me about how you see the work. Tell me about the challenges that you see. Once I understand those, I can help you understand the value that I could bring to the problems that you're having.

“The first part of the doctor framework requires you to keep your mouth closed and actually listen.”

“I practice the doctor framework at the fishmonger, I practice the doctor framework at the dog park.”

LETTING GO OF CONTROL

Sara

I needed to unlearn some habits and I needed some space to unlearn those... I instead have historically done the opposite, which is if I control every outcome, then I'm going to get to that outcome. But that's just not the way the world works right now. And especially not the way the job market works currently.

Olivia Gamber

And I know you were shopping around at all these places now that you've made this investment. What did you think about the value that you experienced? Is it what you expected?

Sara

Yeah, I am so grateful that I did this... my goal in if I was to reach it, it was to have a new job by my birthday, right? And my birthday is in a few weeks and I start four days before my birthday, right? So we've accomplished that goal.

This was never just about finding the next job. It was about finding the next right job.

“This was never just about finding the next job. It was about finding the next right job and quite specifically building a skillset that will carry me through the rest of my professional experience.”

NINE LAYERS AND A SIGNED OFFER

Sara

I'm not on payroll yet, but I've signed the offer letter... they were pretty, I think probably more self aware than many about the challenges that they were facing and about being proactive about communicating those because they were really interested in hiring someone who could help solve those specific challenges.

Sara

I ended up in a role and that role was actually a posted role, right? This is not a role that was created for me. And yet it is a role that was changed for me. It is a role that was adapted once my value had been made clear. And once that trust had been built.

“When you are able to have that intersection of the right fit and the value, and you're able to very clearly articulate the value you can deliver, that scarcity goes away a little bit.”

Ready to Stop Applying?

Sara Boland stopped negotiating with her own perfectionism and started positioning her value. If you are ready to do the same, let's talk.

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Read the full transcript

Sara: I had known for a long time that I was ready for a change and, um, that change may have looked a little different than I had anticipated, but

Sara: am a comms really, I can run circles around, well, pretty much everyone except my comms husband, but, um, you know, I also like someone who's going to hold me accountable to that, right? Like, who's going to say, is that how we need to be thinking about that? Or have you told, is that a story that you've told yourself?

Olivia: can just see that you're in a place right now where you're just, you know, trusting your flow a little bit more.

Sara: And no is a very scary word for a perfectionist. And I

Sara: so much self-worth becomes tied up in what you do and also what your title is or whatever that might be. And I do think for me, there was a little bit of divorcing that I needed to do from that,

Sara: selling myself is not something I am. I, as a comms girl, my job is making other people look good. It's making brands look good. It's making executive, other executive leaders look good, right? I can write a keynote speech to, you know, for somebody else, like nobody's business. But when it comes to actually having to do it for myself, that's a whole other,

Sara: I wasn't looking for a recruiter to help me fix my resume, right? I knew what I was good at. Uh, I, I do communications for a living. I know how to, I know how to, I'm not a recruiter by training, but I know how to write a resume, right? I know how to write a Doshgar and good cover letter, right? Um, but like that wasn't going to get me where I needed to go or where I wanted to go next professionally. It wasn't going to help me kind of accomplish my professional goals. Um, and so that wasn't the support that I was looking for. I was really looking for, um, you know, a program that would help me. Build a skillset that I believed deeply that I needed, not

Sara: like the first part of the doctor framework requires you to keep your mouth closed. Right. And like, actually listen. And like, that was a really important, I, I, I, anchoring in that was really important for

Olivia: were shopping around at all these places now that you've made this investment. Like, what did you think about the value that you experienced? Is it what you expected? What, what did you, what do you think?

Sara: it was an investment, but it's an investment that's already paid back, it paid itself back in dividends, right?

Sara: I'm not on payroll yet, but I've been, I've signed the offer letter.

Olivia: why you continue to rise despite the odds. So I just hope you're really honoring what you've just achieved because it's absolutely incredible.

Sara: not a role that was created for me. And yet it is a role that was changed for me. It is a role that was adapted once my value had been made clear. And once that trust had been built,

Sara: like my goal in, you know, if I was to reach it, it was to like, have a new job by my birthday, right? And my birthday is in a few weeks and I start four days before my birthday, right? So we've

Olivia: when we met. So I'd love to hear kind of how did you evolve that part of you that was keeping you kind of stuck?

Sara: know, I am absolutely an eldest daughter and I'm absolutely a perfectionist. Right. But some of that is also tied into some pretty real limiting beliefs. Right.

Sara: one of the limiting beliefs can be that I come up against, right? Is like really, I'm very good at fighting for the value of others, right? But when it comes to really articulating my own value, that is one of the limiting beliefs that I had to work really hard to overcome and Ryan helped me immensely in that, right? But I think to your point, Olivia, it is a weird job market right now. Like, is there scarcity? Is there not scarcity? What is, what does the scarcity, it's, it's really hard to

Sara: when you are able to have that intersection of the right fit and the value, you're able to articulate the value, or like very clearly articulate the value you can deliver. However, that scarcity kind of goes away a little bit to your

Olivia: Thank you again. Any final words you want to share for anyone that might need some insight when you first met us? Like, what were you thinking? Any last words of wisdom?

Sara: I was able to position myself specifically within the scope of the, you know, that I want, of the work that I wanted to do and the industry that I wanted to do because I learned the skill set of how to do it versus having someone, to your point, tweak my resume, right? It wasn't about that. It was about really being able to learn the skills about how to communicate to people what I can deliver for them and how it's relevant to solving their problems, whether

Sara: this was really about building a sustainable skillset that I could continue to like leverage and move forward with professionally as I, you know, over the course of the next 10 or 12 years,

Sara: I did the work. This is really nice. This is what I wanted. But, like, I did the work so that I could do that, like, invest in myself for the future as well. And I think that, like, that long-term investment is, like, what I was interested in. And I