Featured Member: Courtney Seard

As we launch our new 1-1 coaching platform we are highlighting expert career coaches in our community. Courtney Seard is expert in career consulting and leadership training. She’s successfully booked jobs through The Second Shift and led a popular webinar about manifesting the career path you desire. Here she gives us her tips and insights. If you are interested in hiring her to do 1-1 coaching please reach out to us at members@thesecondshift.com
Tell us your work story : Who are you and what do you do?

I’m a performance coach and mindset and leadership trainer. I assist people and businesses get from where they are to where they want to be. This is done by tapping into the unconscious mind, removing blocks that are holding you back from success. Then by activating strategies, actionable tasks, and tools for success my clients create the results and outcomes they desire.

What is your proudest professional accomplishment?

The fact I’ve been self employed for 9 years. Creating, developing, and producing my product The Rise: Vision|Action|Planner. Giving my TEDx Talk on Mindset Matters: The Art of Playing The Game To Win, and my featured articles in Essence and Forbes.

What is the hardest challenge you’ve faced, work-wise?

Being a single self-employed business owner without capital and connections. Being a bit ahead of my time in regards for the needs of executive coaching and leaderships skills on an unconscious level. Being a black woman in a white dominated field.

If you could change one thing about how your field operates, particularly with regards to women, what would it be, and why?

There would be more women in the technical and mind science coaching space. We would be featured more than the same run of the mill guys who teach mindset and leadership from their perspective and an old set of norms and ideas.

What advice do you have for other women looking to make a career change but are afraid or lack confidence? How is it on the other side?

Plan, start small, and GO for it! You only live once, and we tend to regret and think about the things we didn’t or wished we’d done, rather than the things we did do and either were successful at, or found wasn’t for us. Slow and steady wins the race and get in the game.

Do you have any advice on how to craft a winning pitch?

Practice, practice, practice. And be confident in you. See yourself breezing through the pitch, even stumbling a few times, and making graceful pivots. See yourself confident, happy, and secure.

What continues to draw you to your chosen field and what do you hope to accomplish in the years ahead?

This is what I was put on the planet to do. I can’t imagine doing much help. Helping people get over their self imposed blocks and create wins for themselves and their teams, is whats it’s about.

What is the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever received?

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it burned down in one. Slow and steady wins the race, be patient, consistent, and do it with integrity. It takes forever to built something and one false move to break it. Do your best.

Who has been your biggest cheerleader // supporter // mentor? 

Gina Hadley, at Second Shift really has been a huge champion and friend. Deseriee Peterkin Bell- She’s also been an advocate, mentor and inspiration.

How do negotiate the balance between life and work when you are the one setting the boundaries?

I have a set schedule that I adhere to. I’ve been doing this long enough to have burnt out, and to realize a sunk cost. I make them and I stick to them.

If you could tell your younger self one thing about what this professional journey would be like, what would you tell her?

It’s going to look crazy and be wild. It will be harder than you think it will be, and worth every single second. Save more, invest more, even when you think you don’t have it. Become financially savvy and fall in love with yourself, and money.

How do you make work work for you? 

I work on projects that I care about, with people I respect and admire. It’s a top value of mine. I’m flexible in my behavior and open to new ideas and opportunity. I know who I am, the incredible I offer, and that it’s required in the new era of work.