Meet Kamala. She attended last week’s ASTD 2013 International Conference & Expo. She was in job seeker mode and came to the conference career center for some coaching where she was scheduled to meet me. Here’s what happened next – in Kamala’s own words – and I warn you – it’s super awesome!

Looking for a job is never easy, and it seems to be harder than ever these days.  Things have changed considerably and will continue to change, which can be truly difficult when you have always approached them in the same way.  This is where I was at when I decided to make a change in my career.  I had never had a problem finding a job before; how I did things had always worked for me.  Even though I thought I had adapted to the current ways of searching and networking for jobs, I was not confident that I had, so I was looking for expert advice.  When I looked into the Career Center at the conference, I found I could make an appointment with a Career Coach, so I did.  I had an awesome meeting with Wendy Terwelp on Monday, and highly, highly recommend Wendy and the Career Center.

Although I readily adapt to change, I found I was still approaching conversations from an awkward stance.  Wendy and I discussed how to have more natural conversations with people as people, as opposed to approaching them for what they may be able to do for you – hire you, refer you, connect you to their network, etc.

Later when I went to lunch, as I was approaching a table those thoughts were right there (bad habits!) as I saw the opportunity to meet a lot of new, potential contacts.  And I stopped.  I decided I would just have lunch.  When I made that change in my thinking, everything else began changing.  I met wonderful people, and had great conversations.  I made a lot of contacts, some of which now have great potential to become jobs.  This continued to happen throughout the conference as I had experiences I could not have dreamed of having.  I don’t believe this would have happened had I not relaxed and changed my thinking.  I met people that day at lunch and throughout the conference, not prospects, and they are priceless to me.  Thank you to Wendy, Pat Byrd from the Career Center and everyone else there.  They could not have been kinder or more supportive!  They are a great group, and I look forward to seeing them again next year.

Thank YOU Kamala for sharing your story! Just a tweak in thought pattern created big wins. Here’s a fave quote of mine from Wayne Dyer: “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Kamala has proven this to be true and you can too.