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From Stay-at-Home Mom to Executive Coach - Why it’s Never too Late to Re-enter the Workforce with Katrice Boland
70 Plays2 months ago
Katrice Boland opens up about her inspiring journey from stay-at-home mom to executive coach, sharing how faith, strategy, and meaningful relationships helped her find joy and success in the second chapter of her career.
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Transcript
Introduction to Crossroads Career Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Crossroads Career Podcast, a show where we help you hear God calling, get the right job, and maximize your potential through inspiring stories of individuals and professionals who've experienced a crossroads in their career. All right, well, welcome back to the Crossroads Career Podcast. We are excited for who we get to have a conversation with today.
Guest Introduction: Catrice Boland
00:00:25
Speaker
um We have Catrice Boland joining us. And y'all, I am so excited for you to hear her story. She is a friend of one of our Crossroads guides, and um they have such a fun God story of how they are.
00:00:40
Speaker
happened to meet each other delayed on a flight to Jamaica. Crazy. And that has led to her being willing to share her story today. And it's one that we think a lot of you will relate to really about how do you reenter the workforce? Can you reenter the workforce after being away for years or decades.
00:00:59
Speaker
And so we think it's a story of hope and one that actually is so relevant. And we hope a lot of y'all find great encouragement from just like we have. So we're excited to dig in. um And so, Catrice, can you just tell us a little bit more about yourself?
Catrice's Passion for Coaching
00:01:13
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Well, thank you, Tim and Hannah, for having me here today. um I'm excited to share my story. And I also want to thank my good friend, Eddie Gooden, for inviting me to participate in this podcast.
00:01:27
Speaker
So I am today, I'm currently working as an executive coach um which means I work with executives to help them improve their leadership skills, improve their performance, and achieve their personal and professional goals.
00:01:41
Speaker
um Coaching is my passion, and it brings me a lot of personal satisfaction and fulfillment. um I feel very blessed to work with people who are working towards their professional goals or people who are ready to make a career transition.
00:01:57
Speaker
um When um clients choose me as their executive coach, they place a lot of trust and faith in me to a assist assist them on their career journey.
00:02:08
Speaker
And I um just consider it quite an honor to partner with them you know in their and their journey.
Balancing Career and Personal Life
00:02:15
Speaker
In addition to being an executive coach, I also work on nonprofit boards and enjoy volunteering in my community.
00:02:23
Speaker
I am a student of BSF. know if you guys are familiar with that, but that's Bible study fellowship. But I've been um doing Bible study fellowship for at least 15 years.
00:02:34
Speaker
And that's an important part of my life because I want to be a continuous learner about God. So just learning who he is and what his purpose and his plans are for my life.
00:02:45
Speaker
um I love playing golf in my free time. And I also love spending time with my recently retired husband and my three adult children. So that's a little bit about me.
00:02:57
Speaker
Great. That sounds like a full life. It
Facing Career and Family Crossroads
00:03:02
Speaker
is. We would love to hear more about you know this idea of re-entering the workforce. So maybe you can take us back to when you were early on in your career and then kind of walk us through maybe some time that you had faced uncertainty or you know what happened when you were trying to re-enter.
00:03:23
Speaker
Sure, I would love to. um And I'll try to ah be brief ah um because it's a very long story that and I love to tell. um but it's fine. Sure way.
00:03:36
Speaker
OK, so one of my major transitions um was to place the pause in my career and begin a family. And that just caused me a lot of uncertainty.
00:03:47
Speaker
So just thinking about when I started my career, I had a thoughtful plan about how my career would progress. um So I'll just basically so 1990, graduated from college, um started a banking career because I had spent several summers working at a bank and thought that would be a great career.
Career Pause and Family Relocations
00:04:07
Speaker
But I was a psych major and thought I would become a psychologist. But because I had all the banking experience, I thought that was the best path for me to choose, you know, 30 some odd years ago.
00:04:20
Speaker
So started the banking career, went on to pursue after two years left, went back to graduate school, got my MBA, um focused on marketing, went back into banking after that and became a banking product manager.
00:04:34
Speaker
So again, I had a plan and that was to combine my banking experience with my, you know, marketing experience and my and MBA and and ended up working for a great company. So I felt like I was checking all the boxes. Things are going really well in terms of my career.
00:04:50
Speaker
But a few years later, I was faced with an important life decision, and that was beginning a family and or continuing my career. um so while my career was still very important to me, being a parent was also very, very important.
00:05:08
Speaker
um At the time, my husband's career brought us constant moves, constant change. Almost every three to five years, we were moving. And so my priorities shifted.
00:05:18
Speaker
like to helping my children transition into their new environments and schools. So I made the difficult decision, which was and to place my career on a temporary pause and um well always keeping in mind that I wanted to return to the workforce, you know, it's at some point in the future.
00:05:38
Speaker
I absolutely loved being at home with my kids, loved moving all around the country. i actually grew up in Miami, Florida, My parents are from Louisiana, so we spent a lot of time driving back and forth on this family for road trips from Miami to Louisiana.
00:05:55
Speaker
So I saw a lot of the South. So moving every three to five years, you know, ah married with a family, you know, was actually fun for me. I've lived on lived in California for about 14 years, New York, Indiana. So I've seen East Coast, West Coast, Midwest. I've seen it all. So we moved eight different times.
Community Engagement During Career Break
00:06:15
Speaker
Five different states. And we collected lots of wonderful friends along the way. So it was um lots of transition. but Yeah. Lots of transition. Yeah. Yeah. well I have a follow up on that, you know, because this let's dive into this portion of it, you know, where especially for women.
00:06:32
Speaker
who are wanting to do both, right? They're wanting to raise a family. um They're also wanting to have, you know, meaningful work to do. And I know my wife has gone through that as well, you know, where you quit your job and then all sudden you're changing diapers, sitting at home wondering, am I really making a difference or not?
00:06:51
Speaker
Tell us about that. How did that transition work for you? and Yeah, I love that you shared that or asked that. i During that time, i you know, felt like, wow, real I've invested in a college education, graduate school education. Like I want my skills to be useful. So I found that you know, the work that I did within the schools, you know, was valuable, you know, so I could still be with my kids, but also use my organizational skills and working on the PTA or um still doing community service through and throughout all those moves, I could still get involved and feel value valued and that I was offering, you know, value to others.
00:07:36
Speaker
um Even in BSF, I volunteered as one of the group leaders for several years when I lived in New York. um So I'm helping women along their career journey or their spiritual journey um through BSF. So there are lots of different ways that you can still provide value even when in and raise kids at the same time, even though I was not a full-time employee at a corporation.
Planning Workforce Re-entry
00:08:03
Speaker
um so now I'll just add that In 2016, I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, and just started to realize that that um was an opportunity for me to start thinking about returning to the workforce because I had two kids in high school with the youngest one graduating in 2020. So in my so in my mind I said, okay, I've got four years to figure out what I want to do next because I'll become an empty nester and have a lot more time on my hands and can really focus on ah like putting Catrice first again.
00:08:39
Speaker
so i started visualizing what returning back to the workforce would look like and thought long and hard about the types of skills I enjoyed using, um what I liked most about my previous jobs and school experiences, et cetera.
00:08:54
Speaker
So the question that I was trying to answer is what would be fulfilling? And then I decided that executive coaching would be a perfect fit. So from there, like 2017, I enrolled in an executive coaching certification program at Queens University in Charlotte and completed my program in 18 months, started my business, Bowling Consulting Group.
00:09:18
Speaker
And then I went on to earn my credential in 2021. So this is my second act. um And I feel like it's been a, you know, a wonderful 30 year journey that's brought me all kinds of experiences, insights, wisdom.
00:09:36
Speaker
And I just want to say to all the listeners out there today that it's never, never too late to pursue a new career. That's good. Well, in building on that, what was it like to stand up your own company? Because not to just reenter the workforce, but to establish something of your
Establishing a Coaching Business
00:09:55
Speaker
own. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah. So again, it's it's that piece that's, you know, dealing with uncertainty. um You know, that feeling like, I've never done this before. How do I actually do that? So I talked to um new friends that I made in town who were actually you know, executive coaches who had gone through the steps. So I remember meeting with a friend and she said, oh, hey, you need ah to, um you need a bank account, you know, you need, you know, articles of incorporation, you need, l how do you do the LLC, you need a tax ID. So just making that contact with others who had already taken the steps and then just having that support was really useful.
00:10:39
Speaker
You know, it it seemed daunting at first, but then it became, as I broke it down into smaller pieces, as we do in coaching, it made it very doable and and easy to see see the you know see the steps along the path.
00:10:56
Speaker
Amazing. So in that, you tell us more about just where did you see God um or how did he meet you during this time? Yeah, sure.
00:11:07
Speaker
i am a strong believer and the fact that God is constantly talking to you. So we may not be able to hear his voice directly, but we can certainly feel him and the experiences that we're having, or maybe he's talking to us through others.
00:11:24
Speaker
um I believe that he's constantly guiding us and he doesn't give us anything that we can't handle. So when we're facing difficult situations, he's he's always there. And so as I face different challenges or or find myself in periods of uncertainty,
00:11:43
Speaker
That's a reminder to me that God is grooming me for a special purpose. And it's my reminder to lean on him for support, love and encouragement.
00:11:55
Speaker
And, you know, with my new situation with going back to school.
Faith and Overcoming Career Challenges
00:12:01
Speaker
Right. So I feel like. Deciding to go back to school after 25 years, that was very uncomfortable and full of uncertainty. So I'm walking into a classroom. um I'm one of the oldest people in the room, um starting to classwork again, which I haven't done in a long time. So I'm writing papers, learning how to use new technologies, which was very, very uncomfortable.
00:12:27
Speaker
But through that whole process. And those are just some of the things that, you know, I had to get used to or you know, like learning to start over again. ah knew that God was with me, walking beside me and carrying, um you know, any of the uneasiness or discomfort that I was feeling.
00:12:46
Speaker
I am curious about the details of like backing up when you're high school or, you know, so what was it like when your kids were in high school and then also the epiphany? Oh,
00:12:58
Speaker
I'm going to have some more time, right? Like I'm going to be able to have capacity to work. And you said there was a kind of a lead up to that. So i'm im curious I'm curious for a lot of people that are thinking about that transition, their kids are getting 11, 12, 13, that kind of age.
00:13:15
Speaker
You know, what are some practical things that you started to do in those years following up to that re-entry? Yeah, that's a great question. I, um the reason why, so that was around 2016. I said that I had, like, that was my deadline to say, okay, I've got four years. So it's, you know, it's a lot of time, but to say, like, what, what do I enjoy doing? What's important to me?
00:13:39
Speaker
But the reason why I've kind of forced myself to think about that is 20 some odd years ago, i was on a play date with my five-year-old son who was playing with another kindergartner.
00:13:51
Speaker
And the mom's youngest kid had just started kindergarten and she was looking for things to do. So she said, I cleaned up my garage five times. I've reorganized all the closets in the house.
00:14:04
Speaker
Now I just don't know what to do with myself. So that memory and those words that she shared stayed with me for 20 some odd years. And I said, I don't want to have that feeling.
Recognizing Skills and Strengths
00:14:15
Speaker
um want to be prepared and kind of understand and um be comfortable with where I want to go next. So that's why I said like, it it was important for me to start thinking about, well, what what do I like to do?
00:14:30
Speaker
what Thinking about that my past jobs you know as a banking branch manager, um other jobs that I may have had as an intern, as a product manager, what are the things that brought me joy?
00:14:42
Speaker
um like That's very key. like what What am I good at? How do I feel valued? you know how how do i feel valued Um, those are all, I would say, you know, to the listeners, key things to think about and then start, you know, meeting with people. So if it's, you know, if you want to do something in a health, you enjoy working in healthcare, care start meeting with healthcare professionals, finding out, you know, how you can re enter the, the, um,
00:15:14
Speaker
workforce in that field, if that's something that's important to you. And, you know, one of my clients is a ah video game developer. Now, 20, 30 years ago, you could not have told me that that would be a job, an occupation, a highly paid occupation, but it is today. So there's many new types of jobs that are out there today that, you know, as parents, we may not have thought of before. So just be curious and keep being open minded to new opportunities, but understanding, um you know, what's what values, what skills are important to you and being ready to, um you know, put that all together and, and
00:15:59
Speaker
having the courage and trusting God, praying about it, um not moving forward without out him. I think I said earlier, like I'm a super planner. i try to rely on myself, but I cannot do that. So, yeah.
00:16:11
Speaker
yeah Well, in moms, I mean, you know, you think about a mom's skill set, right? So you said, well, im what do i what am I good at? What do I like to do? Well, you know, you're thinking about a mom, right? I mean, you're you're cooking, you're cleaning, you got childcare, driving, teaching, coaching, right? There's so many transferable skills.
00:16:29
Speaker
In fact, as of right now, you know, if you were going to pay a mom a salary, right, to do all this stuff, It's around 145,000 a year.
00:16:42
Speaker
wow if if yeah if if you're going to hire somebody with all these different skill sets. So that tells me that moms have an incredible value and they have an incredible skill set, but now they need to define that a little bit.
00:16:55
Speaker
You know, what ah what do I like along with your skills? So how did you get to the coaching in that? Right.
Pursuing Executive Coaching
00:17:03
Speaker
Yeah. So that's another great question. Yeah.
00:17:07
Speaker
Well, like I said, many years ago when I was in high school, I thought I was going to become a psychologist. So I already had that passion for the helping profession. ah just didn't know, you know, at the time, like what that would look like.
00:17:23
Speaker
you know, as as a second career. um And executive coaching, you know, was not around. It wasn't as popular as it is today, like some time ago. So I couldn't say, oh, that's the job for me.
00:17:35
Speaker
It's a job that, ah one, I'm able to use a lot of the it it is part of the helping profession, um ah slightly different from other, from being a psychologist or psychiatrist, et cetera, and that it does not require that same level of um ah like certification.
00:17:55
Speaker
it offers me a lot of flexibility. it it's you know it it offered all of the things from what I was looking for um as a perfect career for me.
00:18:06
Speaker
So as I mentioned earlier, all the things that I love to do, you know, personally and professionally and like giving back to my community, it fits in well. i i can manage my own, as a business owner, i can manage my own time.
00:18:20
Speaker
So, I would say to you know other moms, if you find, find you know are you interested in going back to work? there are some I have a lot of friends who have gone back to work who love the nine to five, nine to five plus.
00:18:34
Speaker
And then some who say, well, you know they might be you know interior decorator. They work half days. you know half days So it just depends. There's lots of different opportunities out
Building Confidence and Credentials
00:18:45
Speaker
there. We just have to be you know um highly curious and take a lot of time to figure out what what works best for for you on I love how you protected your think time really well and you were conscious um and like intentionally curious in those four years and um and were also able to pull from so many different times and areas of your life to inform you.
00:19:16
Speaker
this next season and to inform your possibilities and and then connecting with people. It's really encouraging to hear. And so now just with where you are right now with life and work in this new season, what is like something that you are just most excited about or most fulfilled by now that you have made the transition and just as an encouragement to our listeners on on what it's like on the other side and why making those scary steps, you know, can be worth it?
00:19:43
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. I, you know, looking back, you know, now that I'm on the other side, I just um can be really, um can reflect on the what I've gained from that. And so that's a lot of confidence.
00:19:59
Speaker
um And I just believe that, you know, God had a plan for me. So while, you know, I may have been, you know, challenged or uncomfortable during that time,
00:20:11
Speaker
He just showed me um what it's like to overcome those challenges. So, you know, as I said, just returning back to school, being able to conquer that, um that, you know, and earning my certification. So that was step one, because i knew all knew what was required for a person who took, you know, an official 20, 25 years off of work that, you know, so I have a gap in my resume.
00:20:38
Speaker
I spoke with my professors about You know, again, I'm getting guidance and support from other people from my support network. And so I was advised that earning a credential would be important.
00:20:51
Speaker
So was like, okay, that's that's another step. That's another set of uncertainties. That's another set of like encouragement ah that I need. so um But having done part one, I gained confidence to move to the next level.
00:21:06
Speaker
So I went on to earn that credential, but that meant that, um and I actually put that off for some time because I you know was i was afraid. But I knew that if I wanted to get to you know, working as a full-time established credential coach that I would need that a finch official, or being a credible coach, I would need that official credential to give me the credibility in the coaching community.
00:21:33
Speaker
So I just, again, I leaned on God to help me with that next challenge. And in thinking about it, it's like, you know, with going back to school, the first part, it was a lot of Catrice, like what can Catrice do on her own?
00:21:45
Speaker
But with the credentialing, it's You know, I needed to develop a, you know, certain amount of hours, earn hours, paid hours of service. So now I've got to reach out to others, you know, develop a clientele and in order for me to get to where I wanted to go.
00:22:02
Speaker
But again, being reflective on that, it's like, you know, as a Christian, God tells us to, like, you're it's not just you as an individual, it's you reaching out to others.
00:22:15
Speaker
It's you being other-centric, not just so self-focused.
Utilizing God-given Talents
00:22:19
Speaker
And I think my process was a lot of that. It was Catrice, you know, checking the box of, going back to school and getting the education. But part two is Catrice reaching out to others, making connections so that I can, you know, become this executive coach that I am today and also honor what God has asked us to do, right, to be other focused.
00:22:43
Speaker
i'm Curious about maybe, you know in those four years, was there a specific Bible verse or you know, area of the Bible that you kind of meditated on or thought about, right, as you were reentering?
00:22:56
Speaker
who That's a great question. I feel like all, everything that I've learned in Bible study, know, has helped me.
00:23:08
Speaker
But one of the things that that i I'll probably say stands out to me for today's conversation is the parable of the ah parable of talents.
00:23:19
Speaker
And so in that story, they talk about, it talks about like talents as in money, money that was given. you know, to the three people and how did they use it, et cetera, et cetera. But for me, talents means like what skills or gifts was I given?
00:23:37
Speaker
So I, you know, as I think about life beyond, you know, this world, I want to be able to answer the question, you know, when I see God faceto face to face, Catrice, what did you do with your talent? What have you done you know all this time? you know I've given you all these great opportunities.
00:23:54
Speaker
What have you done? I wanted to be able to answer that question. So that's the one that i hold with me that um you know God gave me the ability to work with people, to be a great listener, to be it a great you know advisor, to to help me to develop all these coaching skills.
Reflections on Faith and Support
00:24:12
Speaker
How did I use that to make a difference in the world.
00:24:18
Speaker
Did I use it to create better leaders, to create better people? what what What did I give back? So I would say that that's probably the thing that I hold most.
00:24:30
Speaker
Yeah, the internal perspective, right? Which is not easy to hold onto on a day-to-day basis. As you're going through life and you have family and things like this, we all are going to get to the end and God is going to say, hey, what did you do with what I gave to you?
00:24:45
Speaker
And we all want the right answer at the end of the day. you know so Yeah. yeah but and And we may not always, we're not, we're not, and also hold on to the fact that I'm not perfect.
00:24:57
Speaker
um But I try to remember that God is with me, like he's constantly and um you probably can't, can't see me doing this, but I'm putting, patting my hand on the table or chair right next to me saying he's here.
00:25:10
Speaker
So remembering that I'm not meant to um'm not meant to do this alone. um and I know that there's got to be a lot of listeners out there that are saying that are used to, you know, especially as a mom, like we're in charge of planning. We've got the schedule. We're super organizers. We we almost have to be if we're managing, you know, a family household.
00:25:30
Speaker
perhaps work, et cetera. All the things that we, all the hats that we wear, all the things that we carry on our plate, we have to have to do that, but we don't have to do it alone. That God is right next to us.
00:25:43
Speaker
He's here to, um you know, provide comfort, um the love and support that we need to get through the dayto day to day. So while we may hold those the great ideals of, okay, um I want to, um I want to live my values I want to be successful.
00:26:02
Speaker
I want to do all these things. So it's ah that big eye but it's not like we are not meant to do it alone. We're meant to reach out to others, connect with others um to create, you know, a better place and to make a difference in the world. Yeah, absolutely.
Inspiration and Faith in Abilities
00:26:19
Speaker
Well, and I love how your story reflects that in just about every season, how um God led you to rely on him more and to partner with other people to love and serve other people um in different seasons of your life, um from your family and beyond into the workplace and now into people who are managing their own workplaces and you getting to impact, you know, indirectly, just multiples of people like it is really beautiful. And i love that God helps us.
00:26:50
Speaker
do good yeah and multiply our talents. Like we can't do it without him, but he wants us to, he wants us to be free to go and use them and find joy in it. um So thank you for just sharing that and how you have found joy and finding, you know, what you were made to do in each season. I think your, your confidence has been really encouraging to me and I hope that it's encouraging to others as well. I truly believe it will be.
00:27:14
Speaker
So thank you for joining us. Yeah, thank you case
Crossroads Career Resources for Transitions
00:27:19
Speaker
for your time. and And to your point, right, if you are listening to this and you need a little bit of guidance and help, well, Crossroads has a great program where we have a 45 minute guide call that is complimentary to you. So all you need to do is go to our website, crossroadscareer.org.
00:27:37
Speaker
And on the website, you'll see on the top, or just talk to a guide. And you can sign up and guides will get back to you very quickly and set up a call to talk about your career and maybe something like re-entering like Catrice did.
00:27:51
Speaker
So thank you guys for work getting together. Thank you, Catrice. We appreciate your story. Great. Thank you so much for having me. It's been such a joy to be able to share my story.
00:28:02
Speaker
And um to all the listeners, if I could just leave you with a couple of words, words of advice, like, again, it's just it's never too late to reenter the workforce.
00:28:14
Speaker
um So lots of prayer, um lots of reflection. And you will also find that joy that I'm i'm experiencing now in my career.
00:28:27
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, what a way to end it. And we believe that God is going to use this in mighty ways. So we're excited to see that. And um we can't wait for next time. So thanks so much, Catrice.
00:28:38
Speaker
Thank you. Looking for guidance in your career? Our Crossroads guides are ready to help. Set up a complimentary call now by visiting our website, crossroadscareer.org.
00:28:49
Speaker
Thanks for listening.