Today we’d like to introduce you to John Philbin and Jodi Wellman.
Thanks for sharing your story with us. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
We started Happy Work Spectacular Life because we believe that it’s not okay to have a bad job. We heard friend after friend and colleague after colleague and stranger after stranger saying how ready they were for some kind of change, big or small. So many people are ready to take their work to the next level, but so few know what to do about it, where to start or where to go next (other than the bar). That’s where we come in.
John had an illustrious (and unconventional) career in management consulting before he realized it was time to pay attention to the thing he really loved, helping people find their happy work and spectacular lives. Jodi (previously John’s coach) and the second co-founder of Happy Spectacular, sat back in amusement as he transitioned from “this would be fun, but do I really want to mess with a good thing” (in the firm he started) to “I have to do this” with total certainty. (Like most good coaches, she just had to get out of the way of the client’s great idea.)
Jodi and John have worked in leadership development for a combined 20+ years, with hundreds of clients, thousands of career changes with said clients, and countless career conversations with said clients’ sons and daughters trying to figure out their lives after college, etc. It was apparent that we were experienced and ready to launch a way for individuals to map our their own careers.
We spent a year+ doing all the business-ey stuff (like leading focus groups, building programs, folding a lot of paper airplanes, etc.), barely able to contain ourselves until we launched our website- that was the moment it felt real to us, even though we’ve been coaching forever. We have a very simple dream at Happy Spectacular. We want work to make people happy so they can build really great lives. From there, we are hell-bent on a mission to change the way we work because right now, it’s not working for so many. We’ve come to realize you don’t need work/life balance, just a balanced life, and that doesn’t always mean diminishing the work part of the seesaw.
It’s impossible to have a great life when you have a crappy job because hating your job is hard. You have to find the work that helps you have a spectacular life.
We are leaders in the movement for those who expect more from their work and are willing to work for it (see what we did there?). We help people figure out what’s right for them in their lives and careers, we focus on skill building, planning and forming the right habits that help you identify and then go get exactly what it is that will create your happy work and spectacular life. We want you to live your best, happiest life and at the same time help us to create a powerful and positive change in the world through work.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Our biggest challenge has actually been helping people realize that it’s not OK to have a bad job. Most people are incredibly adaptable and learn over time to tolerate jobs that bore them, create crazy anxiety on Sunday nights, or suck their souls out of them, and we believe that settling should never be the answer!
Because so many of us have gotten good at settling, we’re not only looking to help change their minds, but then show them that there is a recognized, credible and tested way to solve the problems they may not have even realized they had.
The lightbulb does start to go on when we start to describe what we are doing because people don’t really have an understanding or context for what coaching is. We have to do some extra legwork to not only help people recognize the pain that they have in their career, and then what to do about it.
And of course, there are other challenges that come with running a business — there always will be — but we are so lucky to love what we do. We are actually the first success stories of Happy Spectacular because we intentionally altered our career paths to do this. We really do love our work, so any challenge or obstacle that comes up is fun for us to solve. And cocktails help.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Happy Work Spectacular Life – what should we know?
We’re virtual career coaches for regular people like you and me. We want to kill off the bad career by helping people figure out what they want and why what’s really right for them in their work and life (because we know the two are inseparable). We differentiate ourselves through our meticulously crafted programs that help our clients take control of their careers– in really creative and fun ways.
We’re proud of our coaches, who are awesome people that are not only masterful at the art and science of coaching, but also experienced in the world of work (as corporate crusaders, successful entrepreneurs, and exec-level leaders) who are savvy and experienced enough to know how work works, like understanding who gets hired and who doesn’t, who gets promoted and why (or why not), and how to determine what’s really going on with you and with your work situation.
How do you, personally, define success? What’s your criteria, the markers you’re looking out for, etc.?
When more people in the world like their jobs than don’t, when more people in the world don’t dread Monday’s, when more people feel in control of their career, when more people feel like their career enhances how they feel about their life and what they’re doing with it, then we’ll feel like we can put up our feet (for a week, maybe).
This is an epidemic, and as such, we’re on a constant mission to get the word out and help people understand that there is an answer to their career woes. They are not stuck in a job that makes their life worse. There is absolutely hope!
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