Alison Stewart
Appearances
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
Yeah, that's a good question. I definitely experienced it, but I think I saw it as a positive and a welcome change. There was less red tape. You didn't have as many layers of approval or you weren't waiting on other people to make decisions or do that other job.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
pros and cons right because if you're not doing it no one else is doing it so if i didn't make the time to write the job descriptions i was never going to be able to hire someone to help free up my time because no one else is there to write the job descriptions i think the biggest challenge that i experienced with it was do i have the skill set to do these things am i qualified
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
To make some of these decisions, I think that's one thing that I've had to grow and learn is to just trust myself there and know that I can do those things. I was not regularly doing them in my role before because there were other teams to do them. And I've always been one excited to roll up my sleeves. So I had no problem jumping in and doing those things. For me, it was more of the confidence.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
We don't have an HR policy today. Like, we need one. How do I go about creating one? What resources can I lean into? What makes a good job description? How do I prioritize the time to do some of those tasks that felt less core to my role? In this environment, it's all core because, again, if you're not doing it, it's not getting done. And that was the biggest shift.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
So if you knew, if I knew that I needed this job description in place or a decision on which customer servicing technology we were going to use in order to build and execute on my strategy, I knew I also had to make those decisions, have those conversations with different technology vendors, vet that process because there's no one else to do it.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And so it's exciting, but it becomes more of a game of prioritization and how do we prioritize all of those different tasks and make progress and check things off the ever-growing list. I personally love the variety of the list. For me, the biggest challenge was
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
that confidence and saying yes i am qualified to do all of these things and how do i fit them in and how do i prioritize them so that i'm being the most effective at my job and continuing to move at the pace that i want to move at so far we've explored many personal changes you've made in your life and now
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
Yeah, so overalls were an employee benefit and we help everyone. So we sell into the employer channel. So that means generally our end users are employees of that company. So much like they consume health insurance, they are consuming their overall benefit. At its core, we exist to help reduce the mental load, relieve stress, and give you time and energy back.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
So think of us as your personal assistant. So I like to say that overalls as a personal assistant for the workforce. For everyday life hassles, like I need to find a plumber, I've had a leaky faucet, but I don't have time in my day to call someone
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
three different plumbers to understand pricing to get them to come out to the house I'd have to take a day off of work to to do those things and and play phone tag but it needs to be done and and I would have better balance in my life and less stress if I was able to to take that off my list and and so that's the type of task that you can send to the overalls like concierge
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
So those types of tasks to planning a birthday, finding summer camps for kids, which is a very exhausting process. And you have to start in January for July and June. It's crazy. But all of these things are like weighing down folks overall will take them off your plate, will be that extra set of hands for you.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
But also bigger life milestones, a little bit more like messy, complicated situations that you don't know how to navigate on your own and you could use an advocate, a trusted friend for things like you've got an elderly parent. Do they need to go into assisted living? Should they be doing home health care? What will Medicare pay for? How do you fund these things? What's best for your family?
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And how do you understand the resources out there that are available to you? So we come in there too. So we have a fairly broad solution, but trusted friend, your neighbor, your advocate, working through life with you, believing that stress and helping you achieve productivity at work and at home, having that time with your family that Everyone's goal, achieving that work-life balance.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
We're essentially, overalls is your village. Everyone needs a village. I've got three kids, three young kids. So I live by the phrase, it takes a village. And I think overalls is part of our user's village. And all stages of life need a village. You need to support system, friend, family, and advocate. And that's what we're here to do.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
But one way that we're doing it, and you had mentioned some of the stay-at-home parents, Early on, I have friends that have left the workforce and I was talking to them about overalls and they wanted to get back in and use their backgrounds in finance, in home health care.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
They spent a lot of time in the workforce and left to take care of kids or elderly family members, and they wanted to get back in. But most traditional jobs have a strict schedule, whether you're working 40 hours a week or part-time, you have a set hours that you need to work. And that doesn't work for everyone.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And so I was talking to a few folks in my network about overalls and what we were doing and the problems that we were solving. And it was getting folks really excited because they're like, oh, I've done this personally in my life for my family, or I have this background. These are the resources that folks should be using. And these are the questions they need to be asking.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
I was like, wait, and you're looking for work. How can we. make this a win? How can I tap in on this wealth of knowledge that these folks have and better support my customers and then have those individuals, these stay-at-home parents, get value too and feel fulfillment? And this is it. We created this win environment. So now we have this network of
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
life experts, we call them, folks that are working for us in a flexible, part-time capacity, and they're getting to use their expertise, and they're working when they have the time in their schedule, extremely flexible, and they're helping people.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
Because I get this great expertise, and they win because they're getting fulfillment, they're getting to use their background, and it's flexible and allows them to do everything that they were doing for their family.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
So I'm really excited about everything that we're doing at Overalls, but for me, this network is one of the things that's near and dear to my heart as we scale our operation, but continue to provide this high level of service to our users.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
no it's exactly that it's the productivity backs for the employer gets a more productive employee a more engaged employee and the employee has less stress they're getting things done when they get home at night back to their family they don't have to then worry about all of this their life to-do list they have someone taking care of it they can truly unwind and enjoy that time with their family.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And employers are telling us in our check-ins with them that this is one of the first times they have employees coming up to them and thanking them for a benefit. Generally, HR, they're the unsung heroes in an organization. And so they're amazed. Our employees are so thankful for the support you've been able to provide them. Going back to the pandemic, the world has changed dramatically.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
so much since 2020. And I think more than ever, we're asking our employees, we're asking members of society to do more and more with their time than they've ever been asked to do before. And we're seeing it. We're seeing this mental health crisis.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And I truly believe that we can help combat that at overalls by taking some things off your plate, helping acknowledge that these things are hard to try to do it all and we can help you.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
Yeah, great question. I think starting off, like taking that time upfront, doing that self reflection and being honest with yourself on what you're looking for and talk to other people about it so that they can keep you honest too. So if you start making a decision, they can be like, wait, Alison, you, that
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
this job that you're talking about does not align with what you were telling me you're looking for. Because sometimes we need that too. We need people to hold us accountable. So for me, it's taking that time up front. I think I would recommend everyone does for self-reflection, being honest with yourself,
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
Talking to others about your goals really helps you realize them and write them down because we can get distracted. We can see a shiny carrot and start following it and then realize once we're too deep that, whoa, this wasn't exactly what we were looking for.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
So by writing it down, being honest with ourselves, talking to others, that'll help us hold ourselves accountable to what it is that we're looking for. And then I think as we approach any life change, It's all about the mindset. And to me, I truly believe that everything we tackle in life is a learning opportunity. And you were just saying this.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
We were talking about stretching to the limits and going beyond the limits. I think it's really just redefining the limits, right? Like changing them. What our limits are today are not what our limits can be a year from now. And so I think about every step in life as a new learning opportunity, an opportunity for you to get to know yourself better.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And as people, we're always reinventing ourselves and refining who we are. And so don't be afraid to do that and embrace the opportunities for learning and growth that come with change. And be patient with yourselves. These things, some changes are bigger and harder than others.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
But I think having that time for self-reflection, viewing it as a learning opportunity and being patient ultimately will help you grow from that experience.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
Absolutely. So I'll start by saying I had already been thinking about my next project. move. I'd been scanning the LinkedIn jobs, trying to get a sense for what I thought was exciting about different jobs that I read and pulling out those pieces. What's going to do it for me? What's going to satisfy me?
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And at the same time, using my networks and actually talking to a group of alumni from my MBA program and listening to their stories about how they made job changes.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
At this point in my career, I'd been pretty squarely in the insurance industry, and I was interested in exploring something outside of the insurance industry, which I was thinking in my head, how does my experience, how do my skills translate, and how do I communicate those skills effectively when I'm talking to that next company? So I was doing my own scanning of
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
LinkedIn jobs, pulling elements from different job descriptions that were intriguing to me. And then also talking to my network, talking to folks in a very low risk environment about these types of job changes and what folks had done in the past. I was sitting at work one day and I got this newsletter in my inbox that was talking about the launch of Overalls.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And I was reading about the company and the mission and I got really excited about it. And then I went on to LinkedIn to do some more research. I saw our CEO on LinkedIn and I happened to have my meeting that day with like my networking group. And I was talking to them about something that I'd come across this company about overalls.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And people almost stopped me and they're like, Allison, it's very clear to me, like everything you've talked about up until this point, like nothing gives you like as much excitement as this. this opportunity. I didn't even know if it was an opportunity. I had just seen this company announced and thought, wow, that is what I'm looking for.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
It could use my insurance expertise, but it's in a startup environment and would help me make that transition into a more innovative space. And everyone was like, you need to pursue this. And I was like, there's something out there. But I was thinking about Just reaching out to the CEO on LinkedIn to see if potentially he had some time to chat. It was silly.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
I'd never done anything like this before. But my network was like, absolutely. And they had just described some wild tactics that they had used to get attention in a job market. And I wasn't even looking for a job in my initial outreach. I just wanted to understand why.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
If he had any time to chat through like how he got to this place in his career journey, like if he had any insights or lines, if he was willing to share 10 minutes of his time. But I saw we had some mutual connections and I had read up on the company and it came out of a venture studio and did some reading there. And then I sent him a message. I messaged him on LinkedIn.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
I've never done that before to anybody. It was a big, crazy step for me. I was like, what do I have to lose? I'm just going to send him a message. I'm excited. I think this is a cool company. Worst case, I've shared that excitement and nothing happens. Fast forward two days and I get a note back from him and he doesn't have time to chat. He's very busy. But coincidentally, they have a job open.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
They're trying to round out the founding team. and find their head of operations. And based on my background, he thinks I could be a good fit and asked me if I'm interested in applying. And the rest is history. I applied and now here I am three years later, chief operating officer. I think For me, what was very different is I was very deliberate about my reach out.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
I wasn't reaching out to a million people. I didn't do my job. I didn't drop my resume at thousands of LinkedIn jobs. I took that time to be focused. And yes, I got a little lucky. Not everyone's going to respond to messages. But I think I still believe in some ways I made it happen. I manifested it. I was focused, determined, put the time and energy in.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
I think my excitement that led me to do something I wouldn't have to take a risk. It seems like a silly risk to send someone out on LinkedIn, but to me, it felt like a big step to reach out to a stranger to comment on their business, but it worked.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
That's a great question. And I'm trying to think back to what those original expectations were. It feels so long ago. I think the biggest expectation was that I was going to build something to experiment and trip and get back up and do it again. The idea that I would have the ability to make some decisions, make some mistakes, and learn and grow from them very quickly in a short amount of time.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And so that's what I was most excited about and expecting in jumping from the large corporation into the startup environment was just that ability to learn quickly, get feedback on a decision, incorporate that feedback, and make changes quickly. I also was looking forward to rolling up my sleeves.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
I think the biggest concern that the team had was, can I make this shift from this large corporation, which has a lot of things with a very cushy, there's lots of people that have different jobs. Can I jump into the startup and roll up my sleeves and be making these changes? strategic decisions, but also be like doing the job of the lowest level job in the company. Can you do it all?
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
But I was excited to do that because I'm the kind of person that loves to have my hands in different things and a variety of different things, which I think initially is what attracted me to operations is just the variety of work. So I was excited to take that. I was excited to roll my sleeves up. No task is beneath me. And that's still the case today.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
We're still a very lean team and that's been fun. Two weeks into that role, I was talking to an old colleague and they're like, so what's your day like? Before my day was spending a lot of time tweaking a PowerPoint presentation for a leadership meeting coming up in two weeks. In a startup space, we're not really using PowerPoint. We're using what we have.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
We're not spending the time to make anything excessively pretty because it's not adding any value. It's getting it down on paper and sharing the story, but not having to do it to that extent because we're moving fast and we're making decisions with 80% of the information because you're never going to have 100%. You're never going to have perfect data. But I was talking to my friends
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
two weeks into the role and they're like, oh, what did you do today? And it was right when we were rolling out our hassle helper, life concierge service. And I took a request and I was, oh yeah, I called some well inspectors in Colorado because someone was trying to close on a home. And then, you know, I was talking to an insurance
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
partner about how we're going to get there, be a strategic partner and get them on our platform. Then I went in to create some job descriptions of the roles that I needed to fill. And they're like, you did all of that in one day. So you were boots on the ground, making calls to local providers on behalf of your end customer.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And then you were building strategic partnerships with insurance carriers to be part of your product. And you were writing job descriptions for your team so that you could start hiring folks. Yeah, all of that in one day.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And that's just something that wouldn't happen somewhere else, or at least in my roles in the bigger companies, because you have different departments that handle each of those tasks. And so to me, that was really exciting and energizing to be able to be a part of it at all levels, be a part of this company and build it up. So that was a big expectation going into it.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
That still holds three years later. We've gotten bigger. We've had great market traction. I'm very excited about where the company is going. Still try to really be engaged at all levels. If I've got team members that are fulfilling a customer's request, helping them with a life hassle, I'll take some of those on too. I want to make sure like what's happening with our user base.
Chief Change Officer
#258 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part Two
And so I still try to make time to allow for that variety of activity because to me, I think that's what helps me keep a pulse on where we're going. And if I've made the right decisions and if we need to pivot, how do I get those learnings quickly and address them quickly?
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
Because you see some folks that will make very drastic rash decisions. I'm like, oh, I'm fed up. I can't do this anymore. But they haven't put that time, energy and thought into it. And they jump into something that is not a perfect fit and then might not have kind of the financial safety net around them to allow them the time to find that right fit.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
So as much as I could, I was trying to control for those risk factors or at least account for them and be aware of them and what was i comfortable with how would it impact my family which is something that's extremely important to me and so that i can balance both my professional aspirations as well as my personal aspirations a few weeks ago i released an episode with an executive coach
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
Absolutely. So I'll start by saying I had already been thinking about my next move. I'd been scanning the LinkedIn jobs, trying to get a sense for what I thought was exciting about different jobs that I read and pulling out those pieces. What's going to do it for me? What's going to satisfy me?
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
And at the same time, using my networks and actually talking to a group of alumni from my MBA program and listening to their stories about how they made job changes. At this point in my career, I'd been pretty squarely in the insurance industry, and I was interested in exploring something outside of the insurance industry, which
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
I was thinking in my head, how does my experience, how do my skills translate and how do I communicate those skills effectively when I'm talking to that next company? So I was doing my own scanning of LinkedIn jobs, pulling elements from different job descriptions that were intriguing to me. And then also talking to my network, talking to folks in a very low risk environment about
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
these types of job changes and what folks had done in the past. I was sitting at work one day and I got this newsletter in my inbox that was talking about the launch of Overalls. And I was reading about the company and the mission and I got really excited about it. And then I went on to LinkedIn to do some more research.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
I saw our CEO on LinkedIn and I happened to have my meeting that day with like my networking group. And I was talking to them about something that I'd come across this company about overalls. And people almost stopped me and they're like, Alison, it's very clear to me, like everything you've talked about up until this point, like nothing gives you like as much excitement as this opportunity.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
I didn't even know if it was an opportunity. I had just seen this company announced. Wow, that is what I'm looking for. It could use my insurance expertise, but it's in a startup environment and would help me make that transition into a more innovative space.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
Morning, Vince. Thanks for having me.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
Yeah, I'm Allison Stewart. I get to call Massachusetts home in the United States, just north of Boston. And my career has largely been focused in the insurance industry right out of college. I think I actually prioritized location over job, but moved to Washington, D.C., had a great group of colleagues and worked as the insurance broker. Didn't think that's what I wanted to do.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
long term, spent about five years with that company and then went back to business school to figure out my next step. And from there, I took a really interesting internship, spent some time learning about coffee and doing marketing, had a lot of fun, but really found that I enjoy change. I don't want to be in a vertical in my career.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
I didn't want to grow up in a specific lane, which was the case at the company that I was working for in that marketing role, just continuing to only touch marketing. I found I really gravitated towards operational roles where you just naturally have your hands in more things.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
And so despite my best efforts after business school, I ended up back in the insurance industry at a large insurance carrier. That had this program where they took really talented folks and moved them around in an organization in an internal consulting role, which really helped feed that desire in me to keep learning and try different things. And so that was a really great experience. experience.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
And through that, you know, my business unit was sold and I was introduced to a new company, another Fortune 100 company, very large environment and got to a point where I just felt like the impact I was having wasn't what I wanted it to be. Large companies are great. They offer a ton of benefits, but I really wanted to try to do something that was a little bit more risky.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
I wanted to find something that I could learn and grow faster. And that's how I ended up where I'm at today. I'm at a company called Overalls and we're an employer benefit personal assistant for the workforce. And I've been growing this company for the last three years and it's been amazing.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
Yeah, absolutely. So growing up, I moved around a good amount, nothing crazy, but between the ages of five and 14, I moved five times, moving from South and the United States to North, not cross country, not international, not these like crazy
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
Cultural changes, but these shifts where as an elementary school student, as a middle school student, as a high school student, very trying times or big developmental changes going on at that age and then having to navigate new communities, make new friendships.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
And I think certainly that experience growing up has helped me really get excited and look forward to change in ways that I think some people around me are maybe more hesitant. And when we first started moving, I think the first two moves, I was hesitant and I had built great friends and I was very sad to leave them. But then once I got to the new community, I realized that I didn't have to
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
leave my old friends behind. I could still, this is before Facebook and all of the means of communication that we have today, but I was still able to keep in touch, writing letters, visiting friends, but at the same time build a new network and meet new people. And that was always very exciting to me or became very exciting to me through my experience moving around.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
And I do believe that's what has kind of shaped how I think about change and understanding that sometimes, as you mentioned, change happens to you and that is a very different experience than you driving and controlling that change. But I really think that it's a mindset shift. Change is being forced on you in some cases.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
When I was at a company and my business unit got sold, that was a forced change. I didn't necessarily want to go to this new company. I wasn't sure if I was going to have a job at that new company. I was also pregnant with my second child. I gave birth a week after that deal had closed. So there was a lot of uncertainty and uncertainty.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
It could have been a very trying time for me, but I always like to think that it's a new beginning. What good am I going to make out of this? How do I take control of the situation? Because I believe that there's always an opportunity to take control of the situation and help shape where it goes.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
And I think a lot of that is from my experience moving around as a child, owning my new community, taking advantage of the opportunity to meet new people and explore new things.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
Yeah, that's a great question. I think a lot of people during that health crisis, during this pandemic, something we'd never seen before in our lifetime, felt like in some ways we were on a wheel, like every day, just time started blended together. And at one point I had to stop and say, what am I doing? What do I want to be doing? Am I happy?
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
I realized that my time at those big companies, I had learned a ton, but I also started to see a bunch of patterns where you bring on some new leadership teams and we would almost have to take 10 steps backwards in order to move that step forward. And we were up. I helped to take that step when someone else came in and I just felt like I kept getting reset and it wasn't serving me anymore.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
I needed something different. And I think during the health crisis, for me personally, it was this realization that things can change overnight. I never in a million years expected that we were going to basically not leave our homes for that first six months of the pandemic.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
You wouldn't be able to see family and friends like that had never crossed my mind as something that would happen in our lives. And so having experienced that, I think in some ways you start to think about, well, what do I want to get out of my life? And am I getting that right now? And if not, what needs to change? And so I really went through the process.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
a self-reflection process to understand what, how would I be fulfilled? Like, how could I be the best version of myself and where were the gaps and what did I need to do to make a change? So for me, I was fortunate enough that my husband and I both work full-time. And so I had a little bit of flexibility to make a decision and make a change and kind of
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
take a little bit of a risk in my next move, but also took the time to make sure it wasn't too much of a risk that if it failed, I would be in a position to bounce back. For me, the crisis and that change just was a wake-up call. That was like, Alison, you haven't really been fully fulfilled in this role for some time, and now's the time to make that change.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
But one thing that I think I did that helped mitigate the risk of making a change is it wasn't just... Searching, skimming LinkedIn for jobs, reading all these job descriptions and being like, oh, yeah, I could do that job. I didn't wrote it as can I do this job and that that job is a better title, probably better salary. I can do it. Like, I want to apply for it because I know I can do that job.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
I stepped back and said, I could do that. But then I don't think I'm going to be happy because I'm really good at the job that I was doing and I know I can do this job and still something's missing. And so I wanted to step back and say, all right, what do I really like about the job that I'm doing right now? What am I good at?
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
And really step back and dissect that to understand all of those pieces together. What did I want in my next opportunity? So I think I was very just deliberate about that process to help mitigate the risk, but also ensure that I achieved my goal of finding that job satisfaction, that next adventure, the next challenge that was going to satisfy me.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
Yeah. And I'll just clarify that I didn't take any time off. I was doing the self-reflection in my role, you know, because there were opportunities to make changes within, I was at Lincoln Financial at the time, within Lincoln. And I was trying to evaluate, was that going to you know, meet my need. It was that next role.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
And sometimes you can get caught up in that safety net of having a strong company, great group of colleagues and new opportunities coming at you. If you can get caught up in that, it's fun. You keep seeing the next thing, but it might not be that what you're truly looking for, what truly motivates you. And so I had to make that time to do that evaluation and kind of force it for me.
Chief Change Officer
#257 Alison Stewart: The LinkedIn Message That Changed Everything — Part One
But one of the factors I was considering when thinking about leaving Fortune 100, very financially secure job, very predictable, good benefits, structured raises and bonuses and all of that was me understanding like, financially what my family could sustain and then being real with that as part of a decision factor and how I manage that risk with wherever I went next.