Learn how hosts Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari approach personal branding. They talk about what it is, the biggest mistakes people make, how they define and how people know their personal brands, how they’ve navigated rebranding themselves in different points in their lives, and much more.

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Highlights from this episode include:

0:00 - Intro

1:51 - Did you know - Facts we found while researching

2:54 - How we define personal branding

6:38 - Biggest mistakes people make with personal branding

13:01 - How we define our personal brands

14:50 - How people know our brands

20:15 - How we’ve navigated rebranding ourselves in different points in our lives

24:26 - Final advice and closing

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🎙️My Career Journey is a podcast that highlights different career paths, tackles tough topics, and shares actionable tips and insights. Hosted by Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari.

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🎧 Listen on all major podcast platforms

📺 Subscribe on YouTube

✍️ Subscribe on Substack

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Learn how hosts Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari think about and approach mentorship. They cover what mentorship is, myths about mentorship, when to look for mentorship, what to look for in a mentor, how to find and reach out to mentors, signs a mentor may not be a good fit, what successful mentorship looks like, and much more.

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Highlights from this episode include:

0:00 - Intro

1:02 - Did you know - interesting facts we found while researching

1:50 - What mentorship means to us

3:38 - Mentorship myths

5:56 - When we look for mentorship

7:39 - What we look for in a mentor

9:04 - How we’ve found mentors

10:21 - How we reach out to mentors

13:02 - How often we connect with mentors

14:38 - Who’s responsibility it is to drive the mentorship

15:20 - Signs a mentor may not be a good fit

16:27 - Bad mentorship experiences

19:26 - What a successful mentorship looks like

20:48 - Our mentorship experiences

23:47 - Learnings from being mentors

27:37 - Advice and closing

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🎙️My Career Journey is a podcast that highlights different career paths, tackles tough topics, and shares actionable tips and insights. Hosted by Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari.

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🎧 Listen on all major podcast platforms

📺 Subscribe on YouTube

✍️ Subscribe on Substack

📸 Follow on Instagram

Guest Marlinda Galapon has worked for some of the biggest companies in the world, including Yahoo, Salesforce, and Zendesk. However, the path to getting there wasn’t easy.

She originally started in nursing, dropped out because she realized that’s not what she wanted to do, and then worked a mix of contract and odd jobs until she found a full-time job in conversation design. It took her about 5 years to get where she wanted to go, but once she knew what she wanted to do, she never gave up.

In the episode, Marlinda talks about the impact of having an associate’s degree, navigating imposter syndrome, how she handles networking and putting herself out there as an introvert, what odd jobs she’s worked, the importance of mentorship and community, and much more.

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Highlights from the episode include:

0:00 - Episode intro

2:06 - Marlinda’s career journey

5:29 - Self-consciousness about having an associate’s degree

7:15 - Paths into conversation design

8:57 - Motivation to keep pursuing conversation design

10:10 - Odd jobs in between contract jobs

14:47 - Navigating imposter syndrome

19:18 - Putting yourself out there as an introvert

22:08 - Navigating networking as an introvert

24:51 - Mentorship

27:25 - The feeling of not belonging in certain spaces and how to overcome that

29:53 - Finding community

31:25 - Keeping the joy alive in your career

32:12 - Advice for people considering a career change

34:27 - Closing out the episode

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🎙️My Career Journey is a podcast that highlights different career paths, tackles tough topics, and shares actionable tips and insights. Hosted by Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari.

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🎧 Listen on all major podcast platforms

📺 Subscribe on YouTube

📸 Follow on Instagram

Learn how hosts Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari approach giving and receiving feedback. They discuss the importance and impact of feedback, how to ask the right questions to get the feedback you need, practical frameworks for delivering constructive feedback, managing reactions after receiving feedback, and much more.

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Highlights include:

0:00 - Introduction

1:27 - Did you know - Facts we found while researching

4:45 - Importance and impact of feedback in our careers

6:26 - Impact of feedback in our careers

9:20 - Culture of feedback in different spaces

13:58 - How we ask for feedback

16:18 - Asking the right questions to give you the feedback you need

18:25 - Mapping feedback to company goals

20:07 - Asking for feedback if you’re at an agency or freelancing

21:01 - Personal uses for feedback and collecting it as you go

22:06 - When to ask for feedback vs. when not to ask for it

24:12 - Reaction after receiving feedback

26:27 - Thanking people after receiving feedback

27:42 - Taking things personally

30:45 - Navigating conflicting feedback

34:00 - Framework for giving feedback

37:53 - Final thoughts and advice

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🎙️My Career Journey is a podcast that highlights different career journeys, tackles tough topics, and shares actionable tips and insights. Hosted by Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari.

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🎧 Listen on all major podcast platforms

📺 Subscribe on YouTube

📸 Follow on Instagram

Guest Mellini Monique has done it all. Starting from age 12, she worked as a camp counselor and in car washes and pizza shops, and then went to marketing research, drama therapist at an inpatient psychiatric facility, medical missionary, and founder of multiple companies. We don’t cover this in the episode, but she’s even worked as a clown!

Currently, Mellini is a pitch coach for South by Southwest (SXSW), runs her own vocal coaching consultancy, organizes luxury wellness retreats, and has her own popcorn company called Herby PoP. She's also a mother of 6 children that all have their own businesses!

In the episode, Mellini talks about what she did in her different careers, how she navigates the messy middle, how she learned about business from her grandmother, networking, work-life balance, turning passion into a business, what it’s like being a founder, and much more. She also gives valuable advice about aligning your vocal image with your visual image, how to gain the confidence to change what you're worth, and shares a helpful rebranding exercise.

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Highlights from the episode include:

0:00 - Intro

2:29 - Mellini’s career journey

5:08 - Braces

5:47 - What it was like working as a medical missionary

8:50 - Family life

9:48 - Drama therapy

11:48 - Turning passion for voice into a business

16:36 - Watching pitch competitions and pitching to SXSW

20:08 - Communicating value

21:05 - Navigating career changes and identity

28:04 - Learning how to start a business

31:18 - Work life balance with a large family

34:44 - What it’s like being a founder

37:09 - Challenges of going through a rebrand

39:38 - How to advocate for and charge what you’re worth

48:00 - Networking approach and advice

54:27 - Navigating the messy middle

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🎙️My Career Journey is a podcast that highlights different career journeys, tackles tough topics, and shares actionable tips and insights. Hosted by Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari.

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🎧 Listen on all major podcast platforms

📺 Subscribe on YouTube

📸 Follow on Instagram

In the last part of the intro series, hosts Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari talk about their day-to-day lives in their new careers. Emily is a senior AI content and conversation designer and Allegra is a senior consultant in transformation, focused on workforce modernization. They give an overview of what they do, explain what a typical day looks like, share details about the skills they use, talk about how they approach learning and professional development, feedback, and promotions, and more.

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Highlights from the episode include:

1:07 - Quickfire round of questions

3:47 - Overview of what Allegra does as a consultant

6:49 - Overview of what Emily does as a content and conversation designer

9:42 - What a typical day as a consultant is like for Allegra

12:39 - What a typical day as a content and conversation designer is like for Emily

15:01 - Difference between working at a smaller company vs. a big company

15:35 - Weekend work now vs. at our previous jobs

17:01 - How we set our schedules

18:43 - How often we travel

20:49 - How we use skills from music and other jobs

23:01 - Skills we use the most

27:00 - Learning and professional development

29:34 - Feedback

31:58 - Promotions

34:57 - Things we like and don’t like about our jobs and the industry

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🎙️My Career Journey is a podcast that highlights different career journeys, tackles tough topics, and shares actionable tips and insights. Hosted by Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari.

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🎧 Listen on all major podcast platforms

📺 Subscribe on YouTube

📸 Follow on Instagram

Service and helping people is at the core of everything guest Nick Co does. After serving as a Cryptologic Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy, he transitioned into tech, working as a product manager and founding Veteran Timeline to help make the military transition into civilian life easier for others. He also served as Virginia State Leader for Veterans for All Voters, leading a team that successfully implemented ranked choice voting in Charlottesville, VA.

In the episode, Nick talks about his experience growing up in the Philippines, moving to Seattle, and the importance of service, family, and impact. He also talks about the challenges he faced when transitioning from the military, which is what inspired him to found Veteran Timeline. He also shares helpful tips about how to maximize informational interviews and the importance of learning the language of whatever field you’re going into.

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Highlights from this episode include:

0:00 - Introduction

1:43 - Nick’s career journey

4:02- Inspiration and decision to join the military

7:59 - Nick describes his time in the Naval Academy and Navy

11:37 - Importance of service, family, and impact

15:02 - Involvement in local politics

19:04 - Transferable skills

22:47 - Informational interviews

26:31 - Veteran Timeline

35:10 - Challenges of building something from scratch

40:01 - Vision for Veteran Timeline

42:11 - Solving problems

44:38 - Malleability and making an impact

46:30 - Call to action and closing

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🎙️My Career Journey is a podcast that highlights different career journeys, tackles tough topics, and shares actionable tips and insights. Hosted by Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari.

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🎧 Listen on all major podcast platforms

📺 Subscribe on YouTube

📸 Follow on Instagram

Hosts Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari talk interview prep. They share what they research, how to tell their background stories, questions they always prepare for, what questions they like to ask, and much more.

You can now check out our interview prep guide, available on Substack! Find us at MyCareerJourneyPod.

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Highlights from the episode include:

0:00 - Introducing the Deep Dive segment

1:33 - Did you know - Interview prep facts

4:26 - How soon to start preparing for an interview

6:31 - Preparation process

8:52 - Updating as you go

10:40 - Research we do about the interviewers

12:10 - Research we do on the company

15:44 - Where we apply the research in the interview process

18:11 - Mindset preparation for interviews

20:31 - Interview questions to always be prepared for

22:27 - How we tell our stories about our backgrounds

24:40 - What questions we ask interviewers

28:42 - Following up after an interview

29:42 - Advice and closing

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🎙️My Career Journey is a podcast that highlights different career journeys, tackles tough topics, and shares actionable tips and insights. Hosted by Emily Banzhaf and Allegra Montanari.

------

🎧 Listen on all major podcast platforms

📺 Subscribe on YouTube

✍️ Subscribe on Substack

📸 Follow on Instagram