Hey ambitious professionals! It's Linda Raynier of LindaRaynier.com, Career Strategist.
I help driven professionals like you enhance your personal brand so you can
pursue a career you'll truly enjoy.
In this video, I really want to pull back the curtain and give you a raw glimpse
into who I really am and what I actually do.
I uploaded my very first video to YouTube on October 18th, 2016.
And since then, I've been consistently uploading videos on a weekly basis.
Where I share my advice and strategies on how to find and land a career that
makes you happier.
Your career is something you spend 8 hours of your day at, every single day.
I know for me, if I'm not happy in my career, then I'm not happy period.
So I started my channel to help those who are probably feeling a little unhappy
in their jobs or in their careers and want to find something better.
So having started this video five months ago as of this video,
I've gone from zero to over 12,000 subscribers and counting.
And I get lovely comments from people everyday, so I want to thank you for that.
My favourites are actually those of you who have been able to land jobs
that you really wanted, after having watched my videos
on how to improve your resumes and your interviews.
So it always warms me up when I'm able to see the impact that I'm making and
I'm really happy that I started this channel.
But long before I ever was on YouTube
or before I started my business as a Career Strategist & Intuitive Purpose Coach,
I was simply just a little girl with big dreams.
I'm actually the first Canadian-born child of immigrant parents,
my parents are refugees from Vietnam.
And for those of you who are in a similar situation to me,
you would know that your parents put a lot of emphasis on making sure you're successful
when you grow up.
So, that's what I strived to be.
And for the last 30 years my dad's been running a tire shop, he's still running that tire shop.
I remember being a little girl with my sister, being picked up by my dad after school.
Taken to his tire shop. That's where we would stay until he would close his shop every evening.
So I can remember playing hide and go seek with my sister
and getting my jacket, pants and shoes all dirty
from the oils and the dirt. From the tires that would be stacked up against the walls.
In this tiny little shop.
And hiding inside the holes of tires.
And I remember one winter, we were sitting in the car, my dad's car in the tire shop
because it was a bit cold out in the shop,
and eventually we said to each other, "I want to eat! What do you want to eat?"
"I want to eat McDonald's! Okay!"
So we'd see my dad, he was busy of course, serving his customers.
But as we saw him walking by the car,
the both of us would literally just start banging on the windows, honking the horn,
and just screaming and being like, "We're hungry! We want to eat!"
"We're hungry! Get us McDonald's!"
And I could just see my dad being super stressed out.
He was in over his head with customers
and at the same time, he had two little girls under the age of ten
just like screaming for his attention.
Wanting food.
It was pretty hilarious.
Even as a seven year old I can remember thinking to myself
at that point, "I don't want to do that when I grow up. I don't want to do this."
"I don't want to get my hands all dirty."
And so I studied hard and I got good grades, but truthfully
I never knew what I was going to do once school was over.
All I said to myself was,
"I'm just going to get myself a good corporate job and once I make money, that's when I'll be happy."
And it was in my early twenties that I decided that I was going to become a CPA.
And it was purely because I associated CPAs to be professional and successful.
And so I went after that.
But to become a CPA, there are these exams you have to write and you have to pass them.
I was struggling so hard to try and pass these exams.
There were three exams, the first one, I barely passed.
Then the second one, I failed and I had to write that again the next year.
And then I eventually passed that. But the third one, I failed again and I had to pass that the next year.
But it took a while for me to pass all these exams.
And you know that whole experience, I would say really opened my eyes to
me learning more about myself.
Throughout that process, I really had to learn what was holding me back? What was blocking me?
And that was when I really realized that it was more of a mindset thing
than anything else.
It wasn't about what I knew,
but it was more about how I approached the whole game.
And I think in life, this has really helped me to understand and maneuver
how I now do what I do.
Because it's not about what you know, it's about how you act on what you know.
And how you approach the strategies that you come up with.
Now aside from just trying to pass these exams,
I was also working at a Big 4 accounting firm.
I started working at the firm as a summer student in university.
And for anyone who's in that accounting space and who's worked as a summer student,
in one of these big 4 accounting firms.
You know that the summer is not at all representative of what "real life" is like.
At least for most people.
Because the summer tends to be when
the firm tends to be more relaxed, in terms of volume of work.
There's not much that needs to be done.
We would sit around in the cubicles, hang out. They called it the bullpen.
We talked to each other.
It was just so much fun.
And I was totally convinced that this was going to be my life once I started working here full time.
And I was wrong.
I can remember when I started working full time, I would go to these client sites,
and it'd be eleven at night. And at that point I'd be so tired
and I wanted to take a break, 'cause, we didn't really take much breaks throughout the day.
So I'd pretend to go to the bathroom
when really, I'd grab my cellphone and run to a cubicle
in someone's office. I would sit there and call my boyfriend
who is now my husband.
And I'd literally just be sitting there crying to him.
I'd be like "I can't do this anymore! I can't take this anymore!"
And then there was one night where I think I got off at 10 o'clock.
10pm. And I was so ecstatic.
Cause we were used to getting off past midnight for that client.
I called my boyfriend, I was driving home and I was like, "Oh my god!"
"I got off so early tonight!"
"It's only 10! I got off at 10! I'm so happy!"
And he just thought I was the craziest person.
And that's when it dawned on me that I was miserable because
1. I wasn't a very good accountant
and 2. I wasn't doing anything that I really enjoyed.
So then I told myself, "Okay, I have my CPA, I have my experience. So now what am I going to do?"
"I know I can do more, but I just didn't know what that more was."
I eventually moved into a position as a headhunter.
So I became a recruiter for other CPAs
to help them find jobs and move on in their careers.
And this I can tell you was definitely more in line with me because
it had nothing to do with numbers or calculating anything.
It was purely just having to work with people
and find them job opportunities.
So I thought, "Yeah! This is it! I'm really good at this!" And I was.
I was thinking, this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life.
And I found that I was meeting a lot of people
but I was only placing a certain number of them.
Everyone else, I kind of had to ignore and avoid.
And that really impacted me emotionally, because I felt
like I was becoming a really horrible person.
And there were some people that I would look at them and I would look at their resume
I'd meet them. I knew there were areas they could improve on.
But they needed my time. I needed to spend time with them to help them.
Because as long as I could help them I knew they'd be on the right path and they'd find the right position.
But I couldn't do that. I had to just find the "superstars"
and place those people.
Even though I placed a good number of people
there was a way bigger number of people that I just couldn't help at all.
So despite getting rewards, recognition and placing hundreds of people,
in different jobs,
within a few short years I was unhappy again.
And that's when I really had to ask myself some hard questions.
And the biggest question I asked myself was,
What am I meant to do? If these jobs that I've been doing aren't making me feel fulfilled and happy
then what career am I meant to do that is going to make me feel truly fulfilled?
So I started going on a crazy search and hunt for the answer.
I wanted to figure it all out.
I started just googling like crazy,
reading all kinds of books.
I looked up and read everything I could get my hands on about
finding your life purpose, figuring out your passion.
Opening up your intuition so you can get some understanding of what you're meant to do.
And I even became a certified yoga instructor.
I did everything.
And eventually, all those things somehow merged together and I started to get real clarity.
And I started to get real understanding of what I wanted.
For myself.
And that's when I quit my job.
Right after I quit my job I landed a consulting gig as a Career Coach
for a local organization that runs the memberships for CPAs.
During that time as a consultant/career coach, I was getting people coming to me
asking me if they could work with me privately.
And if I could help them with their job search that way.
So that's when it organically started what I do now
which is a Career Strategist and Intuitive Purpose Coach for corporate professionals.
The reason why I do what I do is because I honestly believe we each have a unique purpose and path.
And it's only when our careers line up with our purpose and path that
we're going to be truly happy and fulfilled.
I don't help people to just land any job.
It's more about finding the career that's meant for you.
And I realized that all those detours that I had taken throughout my life and my career
were there for a reason.
They were there to guide me to my purpose.
And part of my purpose is to help you find your purpose.
Over the past year as a Career Strategist & Intuitive Purpose Coach,
I've worked with ambitious, driven, smart professionals
in all aspects of corporate.
My clients tend to have at least 5 years of experience under their belt,
and can go beyond 25 years of experience.
I've worked with
And what I do is I help them to pursue careers that they'll truly enjoy
by teaching them the strategies and techniques to enhance their personal brand
so that they can go after the careers they really want with confidence.
80% of my clients are able to land positions
for jobs that they are actually really excited about
in under 2 months after working with me.
So if you're an experienced corporate professional and you want to take your career to the next level
You want to enhance your personal brand.
And find a job that actually makes you excited...
Then feel free to reach out to me.
Then head on over to LindaRaynier.com
Click under 'Work with me'
Personal Brand Renewal to Stand Out & Get Hired
There is an application form once you click on "Get on wait list"
And once I get your application, I'll review it
and I'll assess whether we are a match and I'll reach out to you to talk to you directly.
Thanks so much for listening to my story, I hope that gives you a better glimpse into who I am and what I actually do.
And if you liked this video please give it a thumbs up.
Subscribe, share it with your friends.
Let them know that this channel is all about helping
driven professionals like you to enhance your personal brand
so that you can go after a career you'll truly enjoy.
Thanks so much for watching, I will see you in the next video.