Episode 36: LinkedIn, Resumes, and Work Gap with Angla Ashurst-McGee

Angela Ashurst-McGee, Founder of Upword Resume

Autumn Carter: Welcome to the Wellness in Every Season podcast, where we embark on a transformative journey towards achieving total wellness, even in the midst of overwhelming moments. I'm your host, Autumn Carter, and I'm thrilled to have you here. This podcast is a sanctuary for all mothers out there, and we extend a warm invitation to anyone seeking guidance and inspiration.

Autumn Carter: We believe in fostering an inclusive community where we learn and grow together, supporting each other during life's challenging transitions. Join us as we step out of survival mode and discover the path to thriving, embracing wellness in every season of motherhood. From sleepless nights to new beginnings, we'll explore practical strategies, share heartfelt stories and uncover the transformative power of self care and self love.

Autumn Carter: Together we'll unlock the wisdom, strength and resilience within ourselves, reminding one another that we're never alone on this beautiful yet demanding journey. It's time to prioritize your well being and reclaim your joy. One season.

Autumn Carter: Hello and welcome to Wellness in Every Season. I am Autumn Carter and this is episode 36. Today I have with me Angela Ashurst -McGee. She is president and founder of Upword Resume and she and I met six months ago at a retreat and instantly it was like I want to collaborate with you on something. So we are and we will tell you about that a little bit later, but for right now, I want to allow her to introduce herself and we'll dive into some of our questions.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Thank you so much, Autumn. I'm really happy to be here. As you said, I am the president and founder of Upword Resume. That's up word with an O, resume. And we write resumes and LinkedIn profiles for professionals who want to take their career to the next level. We work with clients all over the country in all kinds of industries, but we especially love working with moms and working with moms that are trying to return to work or to launch a career.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I have six children age 12 to 27 and I even have two little granddaughters who are the cutest. I live next to the mountains. in Utah. And speaking of wellness in every season, the fall colors right now are unbelievable. It is so gorgeous right now. And I have four chickens and a beehive as well.

Autumn Carter: That is amazing. Our fall colors, my husband and I were talking about this the other day. They aren't really popping yet here in Maryland because we had a bit of a drought and then it's been raining so everything's wait, I want to be green for a little bit longer. We're actually enjoying the different shades of green until we get to fall, but it's my favorite season.

Autumn Carter: It has to be for my name, right? Yeah. Yep.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I would hope so. It's my favorite season

Autumn Carter: too. I used to love driving through Heber. That was my favorite drive in the fall. We had to do it every fall, otherwise I would get a little cranky. Yes, I love fall. Okay, can you tell us what led you to become who you are professionally?

Autumn Carter: I know you have a bit of a journey and I've heard parts of it, but I'd love to hear a little more. Yeah, it was a bit of

Angela Ashurst- McGee: a journey. I don't think any little girl ever dreams of growing up to become a resume writer. And I think that happens in careers where you end up might necessarily not necessarily be where you started or what you planned on.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: And sometimes that's because you just don't even know all the options that are out there. After college, I had a number of writing and editing jobs. My husband and I both did graduate school and we're starting to have children. And I needed kind of freelance part time type roles. And eventually I was looking for an additional freelance job and saw a listing for a resume writer.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: And I did a bunch of research. I didn't really know anything about writing resumes and was able to get this job. And it was actually a great experience. I got a ton of exposure to clients all over the world, all kinds of different industries. And at the time I had two little children, toddler and preschool age.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: And it was a really good fit because it was one project. You start it, you work on it for a few hours, it's done, you move on to the next one. The initial attraction to resume writing for me was really that it fit in my schedule. I worked for a few different resume companies for a few years and eventually I got to the point where I started thinking I could provide a better service if I was doing this on my own for myself.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: And at the same time, I could be charging the clients less. And I could be making more money. I had never thought about being a business owner. I had never wanted to be a business owner, but I had this feeling like maybe I should break out on my own by this time. We had five children, I definitely needed something that was flexible.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: And what eventually happened was I went to a family reunion with my siblings and my parents. And one day as we were chatting, I said. What do you think if I broke out on my own and started my own resume writing business? And everybody immediately was like, Oh yeah, for sure. You could totally do that.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: No problem. And one of my brothers said, Oh yeah, I'll put together your website in the next two weeks. And they really gave me the completely unfounded confidence that yes, I could do this thing that I did not know anything about. And I really think without that push, I. I don't know if I would have been able to do it.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Right then and there we brainstormed the company name and the tagline. And because I had worked for a number of other companies, I was able to zero in pretty quick on what I wanted my company to be, what I wanted our brand values to be what kind of service we wanted to provide. And that really has been the case to this day.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: For several years, I ran this very small resume writing service. It was just me. I was working during nap time and during those short little preschool hours that you and I were talking about. Nobody is going to get more done than a mom who has 90 minutes until preschool gets out.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I remember telling my kids these people, when I would have to have client phone calls, I would say to the kids, these people are paying me good money to not know that there are five children on the other side of this door. If you are not bleeding, do not come in here until I'm off the phone. But what I also learned during this time is that besides the flexibility, resume writing is a really fulfilling job because it can be super transformative to our clients. It can be life changing. I am an advocate personality. I love finding out what makes someone awesome and then reflecting it back to them. And people come in with anxiety, uncertainty. We find out what makes them awesome at work, we put it into words, we put it on paper, and then give it back to them for them to see for themselves.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: And it gives so much confidence and clarity and then enables them to get the jobs that create. Prosperity and stability for their families and all of those things. I know nobody is excited about resumes, but I get pretty excited about resumes because I can see that they are life changing. Eventually we had baby number six and by the time she went to kindergarten, And I had a little more time to spare.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I decided to work on growing my business a little bit more. Again, I had to educate myself. I took some courses on business development and marketing and websites. And now I. Work on the business and I hire and train writers who do a lot of the resume writing for us And that's a full circle moment because a lot of my writers are moms Who like me are looking for some flexible fulfilling work super smart talented people who maybe don't necessarily have a normal career history and a full circle moment that I'm able to work with people like that.

Autumn Carter: I love that you have a family that is so supportive that they're like, yeah, and you're doing it and I'm going to help you. We're all pitching in. That's amazing. That's even better than the hot seats that we had during our retreat. That's true. Yeah. It

Angela Ashurst- McGee: was like that, actually.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: What if we all sit together and brainstorm? What would be a good tagline if you had a resume business and somebody pulled up their computer and was like searching domain names? The whole thing.

Autumn Carter: We always need cheerleaders. We always need someone in our corner. I love that you had that in so many people right there. , yes, you should do this.

Autumn Carter: Why haven't you yet? But not in a negative way.. We think you should have been doing this. We're gonna help you get there. That's amazing. I love that you have that and that you still have them to lean on when you need it. And I love that you took it full circle and that you hired other moms because we all know what it's like to be there where I only have this amount of time in my day.

Autumn Carter: And I can give during that time and I want to feel like I have my own money that I don't need to go like a child and ask for allowance or whatever from my spouse. I can, I have my own money that I can use. I have my own time. I'm developing my talents and that you found ways to do that. That is amazing and that you were able to grow your business, that you saw the vision and went there.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Thank you. I think there's two things that stand out for me being a mom who's a professional or a business owner. One of them is the continual learning piece of it. And I'm sure you experienced this too. There's always something new to do in your business. There's always one more thing you could try or things change over the years.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: And now you need to pivot a little bit. There's always a new problem to be solved. There's always some new opportunity to grow if you had time to do it. I try to really lean into that continual learning. Approach to running my business that I'm always going to be trying something new and expanding my skill set.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Hopefully, this is going to keep me young that I always have to be learning something new to be running my business. But then balancing that out is I run my business on my own timeline. There's this boss babe hustle mentality of, you're going to finish this project in the next six weeks.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: And one of my boundaries is I do not set deadlines in my business. My mantra is I will get there when I get there. I set goals. I give myself schedules, but I don't set a deadline on when something is going to be complete because, maybe I have a week where kids have a lot of doctor's appointments or.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Somebody gets lice or it's spring break. I have a really strong value of being engaged and present with my children. And that means sometimes. Closing the computer and stepping away, even if I haven't finished a project. I do not have deadlines in my business for myself.

Autumn Carter: I was going to say, I know you all enough to know that you do for clients, but for yourself, that is different.

Autumn Carter: And you also said that you now have a chance to focus on the business side of things you have people that can focus more on the clients and writing Their resumes and helping them out you had a Instagram post, and I think you even had it on your website, I'm putting you on the spot here.

Autumn Carter: But I think AI is out there enough that people will be wondering, why choose you over AI? Can you tell us the differences and why it's better to go with you?

Angela Ashurst- McGee: That is such a good question. And anybody who's in a content development field, this is the big question. What can AI do?

Angela Ashurst- McGee: What can ChatGPT do? And what can it not do? Here's what I think it can do really well. It can get you started. Sometimes just staring at the blank page, you're going to write a resume or a blog post or whatever it might be. You don't even know where to begin. You can put in those prompts and get something that you can then work with.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I used it recently because I had to write a tricky email. And I said, how would you write a professional email about XYZ? As a writer, I never love what AI or ChatGPT produces. It's not great writing, but it's a pretty great first draft. And sometimes getting that first draft out is the biggest hurdle.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I would definitely recommend if you are trying to put together a resume, use an AI tool to create your first draft. But number one, it's not going to sound great, you're going to want to edit it up. And here's what the real challenge is. Any AI tool is only as good as the input and it has a pretty big input.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: It scours the whole Internet to have lots of data. It does not know you. Your strengths and skills, what you have to offer an employer, and it can't produce a resume that captures all of that information unless you provide that information. One really important part of our service at Upward Resume is that we have a phone consultation with each client and their resume writer.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: And that's where we guide our clients through what does your ideal next job look like? What are your goals in your career? Where are you trying to head? What do you want to accomplish with this resume? And then we walk through their whole work history. Tell me a little bit more about this. Did you do anything in this area?

Angela Ashurst- McGee: You say you did this project. What was better after you finished that project? Or what was your specific role? Can you put a number on this? How many times did this happen? Or how many sales were made? We help develop the content for a great resume, and an AI tool can't do that because they don't know you, they don't know what you've done, so it's a garbage in, garbage out situation where it's really limited by your inputs, and generating the right resume content is a big part of what we do.

Autumn Carter: I was thinking when you were talking that You also, and I've seen you do this in action, you help people overcome their mental blocks around it. AI cannot do that. Yeah. You need a person to help you walk through that. I helped my brother in law recently, to get a job out here in Maryland.

Autumn Carter: They moved here a couple months ago. And there were a lot of mental blocks around it. And... okay, now we're through this hurdle. , now I have to explain to him why he needs to do this, and then why he needs to do that, and ... It made me realize how much a real person with emotions that can help fully listen to what you're saying, and help you explore areas, how...

Autumn Carter: That can't be replaced ever.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Yeah. Yeah. And you are totally right. Everything about resumes and job search and career development. There are a lot of mental blocks with that because it touches right on your tender spots of. Am I good enough? Am I going to be successful? I'm competing with other people.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Am I going to be able to outshine the other people? I talk with people who are very accomplished in their careers and still are feeling like, I'm not sure this is good enough. I'm working right now with a woman who is a CFO for a large company and is wracked with indecision and hesitation.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I think that. Especially can happen with moms. If you haven't necessarily had a traditional work work history, career progression. You're definitely going to be feeling that imposter syndrome, fear and anxiety, and the way that can show up is resistance. I think resistance is that feeling of fear and hesitation when you are about to do something that you want to do.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: That honestly you can do, but it gives you enough hesitation that you don't. You don't want to. You go start a load of laundry instead. I think it's really important for moms to be aware that resistance is going to happen. When it pops up, you can say, ah, hello resistance.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I have been expecting you. You are doing your job. This is very normal. And now I am going to move forward and take the next step in putting together my resume or researching jobs or looking into a course or whatever it might be. I know the

Autumn Carter: ones that have come up for me and for clients that I worked with it's that They're worried that they're talking themselves up too much, then they can't live up to it.

Autumn Carter: Also, talking about themselves. And , it can feel really boastful. And it's how else are they going to get to know you? You don't really, you haven't had a working relationship with them before, they haven't seen you in action. And their only way of knowing is reading your resume.

Autumn Carter: If they're interested enough, talking to you, especially reading a cover letter, cause I know people have resistance around even writing a cover letter. They'll write a resume fine, but the cover letter seems to be a little bit of a sticky spot for some people. And then, meeting you. I really like that you offer this because there's many people who get stuck.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: , it definitely feels very cringy to write about yourself. I would say that's another benefit of working with a professional resume writer because they're saying it for you. You don't have to be. Trying to thread the needle of what's

Angela Ashurst- McGee: One way of looking at it is it's not bragging, it's not inappropriate, it's data, you are providing data, like what you were saying, the person who's reading your resume doesn't know you, you have to provide the information. It's

Autumn Carter: data. Yeah. And you talked about that in one of your videos where I think it was somebody who was caregiving and...

Autumn Carter: They didn't really want to go into why there's a gap in their resume and actually they were doing things while they were caregiving. Putting it that way and talking about it in a logistical data way instead of emotional kind of takes care of that. You're not going into, I was caring for my terminally ill mother and she passed away and I'm going to be a bawling wreck during the interview.

Autumn Carter: No, here's the facts. And I can leave it at that and move on through the rest of the resume and it keeps it flowing during an interview instead of having this be the sticking point. I liked how you covered that in one of your videos.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Yeah, I think that's really important.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: If there's something that you do feel some emotions around I took a career break. Yeah. And maybe I didn't want to, or I feel sheepish about having been out of my career for so long, or I'm going back to work now because of a divorce. There's lots of reasons why you might feel some emotions around one of these topics.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: That is a little trigger notice for you to think that through a little bit. Notice the emotions that you're having about it, which are totally fine to be having, but then come up with an emotionally neutral factual brief explanation that you're going to share when it comes to your resume or interviews or so forth , that you can take the emotion out of it.

Autumn Carter: You want to be remembered for the facts and the way you presented yourself and they want to be able to see the whole picture or as much of it as they can in that little glimpse, that little time with you. And if you're feeling like you're sticking in this one spot, it helps to, okay, let's look over all of your history.

Autumn Carter: Okay. Remember all of that. Don't focus here. And that goes into the. Topic that you wanted to talk about, which is how women should never feel embarrassed about their gap in their resume, especially because we actually are doing stuff during the gap. Can you touch on that a little bit? Yeah,

Angela Ashurst- McGee: absolutely.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: First of all, I would say one of the few silver linings of the whole COVID situation is that it did normalize somewhat that professionals are human beings who live in families and have caretaking responsibilities and sometimes have gaps in their resume. I think some people feel like if there's a gap in my resume, it's like a red flag and I'm never going to get a job.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Gaps are not ideal in your resume, but they're also a part of life and especially a part of women's lives lots of times. We don't want to over awfulize having a gap on your resume. But I do think that for most people, you can fill that gap. There are a lot of things that you have been doing with your time.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: First of all, I would say the work that moms do is valuable. We live in a society where the work that moms do does not have money attached to it and in our society Money is what we put on things that have value it is easy for moms to think this work that I'm doing does not have value because it does not have money attached to it, but of course that work is valuable to your family and to society at large and in addition It has value to potential employers.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I always like to think about, let's say there's an entry level job, and the two candidates for this job are somebody who graduated from high school or graduated from college, is young, has very little life experience. Versus an applicant who's a mom, who has all kinds of life experience and maturity and communication skills, who is really going to be a better applicant for that job?

Angela Ashurst- McGee: My mom was a homemaker for more than 15 years, got an entry level job, literally stuffing envelopes for a property management company. And she worked her way up and became a commercial property manager. She made very good money. And essentially she was using her mom's skills. She was establishing work processes.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: She was training people. She was making sure everybody was doing what they were supposed to be doing at the right time, at the right quality level. Basically what she had been doing

Autumn Carter: at home.

Autumn Carter: Okay. I love how you talked about your mom, because she knew how to put out fires, where when I entered the workforce at 18, I worked much younger than that with my dad's business, when I entered somebody else's business, so to speak, I did not have the skills to put out fires.

Autumn Carter: As a mom, oh, totally. And I can juggle all the things and I, yeah, especially now being a business owner and a mom, even more, I can juggle, but yeah, I would definitely hire a mom. Looking back when I was young I thought I wouldn't want to hire a mom because they tend to be the ones who pick up the kids and they're the ones who have to call it sick if the kids are sick.

Autumn Carter: But if we are in a balanced relationship. It's not the mom who's doing that, right? And more than that, when they do show up, what you were talking about earlier, how much you can fit in those 90 minute gaps. Yeah. When the child is at preschool, yes, we can fit it in. And I know so many employees that work full time and they can get the work done faster.

Autumn Carter: They have to milk it and they're bored and they make up stuff or they make themselves look like they have busy work where if you hire a mom, you can hire her part time. She will do more than that full time worker. I promise you that. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Put it in. So tell me more about the gap.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I definitely recommend finding ways to fill the gap. And for many moms, that means brainstorming and casting a wider net of things that you might not initially think would be long on a professional resume. I think if you're putting together a resume, maybe for the first time, start brainstorming absolutely everything.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Volunteer experience, technical skills, any courses or trainings that you took, jobs that are maybe older or not so relevant. Part time jobs, working in your kid's school, volunteering in your church or a community organization, life experience, events that you have planned, brainstorm all the things that you have been doing during this so called Yeah.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I know a lot of people maybe do the books for a family members business or do the social media for a family members business. Run a program at the school, all kinds of things like that. Definitely find ways to fill the gap. I have, we have a client that we worked with who was a mom, hadn't worked for a few years, and was applying for jobs as a surgical tech, and she had a child with complex medical needs.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: We created a whole section of her resume called medical management or something like that and listed all the procedures that she had guided this child through, all the technologies that they used for this child. And again, if you're hiring a surgical tech, would you like to hire a mom who has been firsthand with all of that stuff?

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Or somebody who's brand new? Never actually had exposure

Autumn Carter: to it. Emotional side of it, she was there as the emotional coach for her child. And she would be able to offer that. to patients instead of having it be fully clinical and someone who graduated and knows how to do it by the textbook.

Autumn Carter: This mom knows how to do things if something goes wrong, she knows how to still fix it on the go and she can think on her feet more than somebody who has graduated school. that's a great question. Yeah, that's a great

Angela Ashurst- McGee: point. Here's another example. We wrote a resume for a mom targeting jobs in accounting, and we included on her resume that she was the treasurer of a quilting guild, that she had been the treasurer of the PTA, and over the years she would help family members with their taxes.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: We called that freelance Tax accounting and included that on the resume. I think almost no one has a true gap with nothing in it. There's things that you're doing that are related to employment that you can include.

Autumn Carter: What came to mind was value, right? What we're putting on a resume is, are things that hold value, that a potential employer will find value in. And you are doing valuable work, and you are listing the value of these things. That's that word came really strong in my mind right then.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Yes. Yeah, that is exactly right.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: The purpose of a resume is to show how you can provide value to a prospective employer. And what do you do that shows value? That's going to depend on what kind of job. You are applying for and your background and so forth. But that's the exact right question to ask. What do I do? What experience do I have that shows how I can deliver value in this role?

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Whether it's accounting or a surgical tech or whatever it might be.

Autumn Carter: And you are definitely showing clients how to think outside the box. We tend to get stuck, especially when we're here in the middle of it, that we only see right here. We don't zoom out and see the rest of it, see the bigger picture, see different ways that we can fit in different roles and how we do fit in different roles in life.

Autumn Carter: What other things does your company offer? Most

Angela Ashurst- McGee: of our clients use our package where we write your resume and your LinkedIn profile together. LinkedIn used to be an optional side platform, but now it's really an essential Element of any professional's reputation.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: It's not really social media. It's professional networking. And recruiters use LinkedIn like crazy to source new candidates. It makes a lot of sense to optimize your LinkedIn profile along with your resume. And of course your LinkedIn profile is going to be all about keyword optimization. And then again, showing value that you can deliver.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Most of our clients use that service and I honestly would recommend that any professional needs to have an updated resume and LinkedIn profile. And if you are considering a new job anytime in the next couple years, you want to have that in hand. I cannot tell you how many times somebody calls me and says, I really need a new resume today because a friend connected me with this great new job opportunity and they want a resume, but I haven't updated my resume in, seven years.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I can honestly say for pretty much any professional who wants to keep their career moving forward, you should use our elevate package where we do your resume and LinkedIn profile.

Autumn Carter: This is my biggest hurdle with my brother in law. One of them was you need to be updating on LinkedIn because my husband keeps his updated and he has recruiters reaching out to him all the time.

Autumn Carter: It's the whole mentality of are you going out and hunting beasts or are you growing a garden, right? If you're trying to feed your family, you want to be doing both, and LinkedIn helps you grow your garden while you're out hunting for the companies on the different platforms.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I would definitely agree with that. And the other thing I would say is that you want your resume and your LinkedIn profile to be forward facing, so you don't want them describing what you've done in the past.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: You want them showing how you're qualified for your next step forward. So sometimes people will complain. I don't want to be on LinkedIn because then I get contacted by recruiters and it's a hassle. And my response to that would be you must not have your LinkedIn profile set up correctly, because if it's set up correctly, you will be contacted by recruiters who are hiring for jobs that you really want.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: If they're contacting you for lame jobs, then we need to realign your LinkedIn profile. It must be reflecting backwards on what you've done in the past or lower level skills. And what can we do so recruiters. Hiring for your next job up or your dream job so that those recruiters are contacting you.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: What

Autumn Carter: a great way to describe it and LinkedIn did it. I think last year you would know better but on your profile you can even put if you're searching for jobs or not. Yeah, there's a little kind

Angela Ashurst- McGee: of green circle that says open to work. And recruiters have this whole specialized search platform that they use within LinkedIn.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: And that's one of the filters that they can use when they're searching for candidates. And let's be honest, if

Autumn Carter: a recruiter finds you and you don't have I'm searching for work, if you feel like a good enough fit, they're still going to reach out to you. If you are forward facing, like you're saying.

Autumn Carter: How much less work is it, right? They're reaching out to you for your dream job instead of you having to constantly be looking out while you're doing life and working and everything else. I really like that. So yes, use Angela. There's another plugin for you, right? Thank you. Thank you very much.

Autumn Carter: What other tips do you have for moms who are wanting to re enter the workforce?

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I think one tip would be to start getting your foot in the door in the career path that you want to go down. And maybe even the step before that, if you're not sure what jobs you might be targeting, get on LinkedIn and do a fantasy job search.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Don't worry about location or maybe even pay. Start finding jobs that look interesting once you find some interesting ones with one job title, try a similar job title, and find the job descriptions where you think, Oh, I would be great at that. I can totally do that. And at the same time, I would love doing that.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: That would be, that would really turn my lights on. That would be really energizing for me. Those are the ones that's really guiding your direction. Those are like the little lights on the airplane that are guiding you forward when you feel I can do that. And I would love doing that. And once you've gotten a broad idea of the direction that you might want to go next.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: in your career. It doesn't have to be super specific, but once you've gotten that broad idea, find ways to get your foot in the door. That would mean following companies on LinkedIn and people in that field, groups in that field on LinkedIn to get a little exposure. There are so many resources for courses and trainings where you can learn more about that role.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: start picking up on the lingo and the key terms that are used in that role. You can start reflecting that in your resume. As soon as you sign up for a course, you can go ahead and list that on your resume. If you can see that there's a gap in your skills, Sign up for a free or inexpensive course in that area listed on your resume.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Now you've got that credential, you've got that keyword on your resume, and that's a great way to get started.

Autumn Carter: That's really great advice. And then we have a program that we collaborated on that is specifically for moms who are wanting to re enter the work field, and It goes for eight weeks and it's going through why do you want to do this to start with because life will get hard.

Autumn Carter: Something challenging will happen. You need to have your why as your touch point. And it goes through, okay, if your child is sick, Are you the default parent who is going to take care of all the appointments, everything else? You need to have this discussion with your husband or your significant other, or you need to find your village if you are a single parent.

Autumn Carter: The first two weeks are journaling, and then we go deeper into it. And then I start to use Angela's content. That's why I mentioned her videos and she also has a guidebook that goes with it. It's for moms who are really struggling with this gap, I don't know what to do. I developed this because I know many moms who are wanting to go back to work, but not in the field that they were in before kids.

Autumn Carter: Or before caregiving of any kind, and they don't know the first steps, so they wish, and they leave it, and a decade passes, maybe another decade, and soon their significant other is retiring, or their kids are all grown up, and they are lost. This is one avenue that you can seek fulfillment.

Autumn Carter: If, for you, you don't want to do a hobby. And you need the fulfillment in a way that pays you having that monetary value, or if your family needs you to reenter the workforce, there's so many reasons why moms enter the workforce, but this is our kind of plug together that we have this program for moms.

Autumn Carter: If you don't want to wait till doors open work with Angela. Now, if you want to wait till doors open and have the collaborative group approach. Sign up with me. To segue back to asking questions, what does your ideal client look like?

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Our ideal client is anybody who is ready to advance their career. We work with people in the C suite and entry level. One of the real advantages to having a team of writers is that when new clients come in, I match them up with the writer on my team that I think is going to be the best fit for their career level and goals.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: And we also maintain partnerships like with you, Autumn and other coaches and recruiters that we use as our ongoing feedback of what recruiters looking for, what resume best practices are working right now and constantly adjusting so that we are in line with what really works. But I love that your program provides that guidance and that clarity so that when They get to the resume phase.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: They really know what they're looking for and why I think that's so powerful. And what I like

Autumn Carter: is mine is more about the mindset and what do you want to do? What do you want to look for? But if you're really stuck on the resume, I don't help beyond a little bit of handholding. So if you really want.

Autumn Carter: Diving deep in the resume. That is Angela, right there. She has a writer, she has all that, where I'm working on more of the coaching side of it. And having the group allows you to have feedback from other like minded moms. Where if you want somebody who is in the thick of it, constantly talking to recruiters, constantly growing in that side of it, that's Angela.

Autumn Carter: I want it to be more of a worldview where she can do the deeper dive. That's why I wanted to collaborate with you. I know that you have a social media account. And I think you also have a newsletter.

Autumn Carter: Can you tell us about those and how to follow you?

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Yeah, absolutely. We are at Upward Resume on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and we post career information, tips and tricks, and updates all the time, that's a great place to follow us. On the Upward Resume website, there's a blog, which has all kinds of great career information.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: How to submit your cover letter, how to follow up after a job interview, all kinds of information. We do have a newsletter as well. If you go to the Upward Resume home page, you can opt in to the newsletter there. And we would love to work with any of your connections, Autumn. I totally agree with what you're saying.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: You're in your zone of genius with coaching. and mindset work. And we really stay in our lane with resumes LinkedIn profiles and cover letters. On the Upward Resume website, Elevate is the package that I recommend for most professionals where we do your resume and LinkedIn profile. And then if you go to the Who We Serve tab, there is a special page for career reentry.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: You can take a look at the special service that we have there as well.

Autumn Carter: And then what if somebody is listening and they're like I have this husband or this uncle, or I know you work with males as well as females. What if it's not just for them? What are your recommendations and who all do you work with?

Autumn Carter: What is your demographic? Yeah, we

Angela Ashurst- McGee: work with a lot of men. And honestly, we hear time to time from women who say I'm calling you for my husband because he's too busy right now. He really needs a new job. we love referrals. We get actually probably about half of our business from referrals from people who have heard about us or worked with us and then share us with their.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Spouse or friends or colleagues, reach out anytime, anything you submit on the Upward Resume website will find its way directly to me so that I can review and respond. I'm always happy to make personal recommendations in terms of what services I would recommend. If anybody's not sure which package they're interested in, I always tell people, just start with the lowest one.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: And if you're happy with it, then we can add on from there. But we have a really good client satisfaction rate because my writers know what they're doing. And my writers really care. We connect with each one of our clients to make sure it's not a generic, say, project management resume. It's a resume where you're going to say, Oh my gosh, that sounds like me, only better.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I think I would hire myself after reading this resume. It is

Autumn Carter: uniquely tailored for each person and it shows their personality as well as their work history. I like it. Yes.

Angela Ashurst- McGee: Yes. And reflecting forward on where they want to go next.

Autumn Carter: Yes, most important. I love that. Is there anything else that you want to share with us as we close out for today?

Angela Ashurst- McGee: I think that's it. I'd love to connect on whatever social media platform you use or LinkedIn. Give me a follow and reach out with questions at any time.

Autumn Carter: Great. Thank you. In the gentle hum of a home, amidst the symphony of laughter, occasional cries, and the soft rhythm of life's everyday moments, lies the heart of a mother, ever beating and ever giving.

Autumn Carter: After an enlightening conversation with Angela about the intricacies of resumes, the journey of job hunting, and the world of LinkedIn, we embark on a voyage closer to home. Closer to that very heart. As the sun casts its golden hues on another week, we'll delve deep into the art and essence of managing stress as a mom.

Autumn Carter: A dance between chaos and calm, strength and vulnerability. It's a journey every mother knows all too well. Let the comforting whisper of our podcast be your guide and companion. Ensure you're subscribed so together we can navigate these undulating waves of motherhood.

Autumn Carter: Thank you for joining us on this week's Refreshing Wellness Discussion. I am Autumn Carter, your guide through the seasons of motherhood, and I hope you found inspiration and valuable insights during our time together. If you resonated with the topics we explored today and want to continue your wellness journey, I invite you to follow me on Instagram at momswellness in every season.

Autumn Carter: There you'll discover a wealth of ongoing wellness tips specifically curated for moms like you. Sharing our podcast with others is an act of caring and I invite you to Spread the word by sharing, subscribing, and leaving a review wherever you enjoy your podcast. Your support is deeply valuable to us, enables us to reach more mothers who are seeking transformation and empowerment.

Autumn Carter: If you have a specific topic you'd like us to cover in more detail, or if you're interested in a free coaching consultation, don't hesitate to reach out. You can send me a direct message on Instagram or visit my website, wellnessineveryseason. com, to send an email. I'm here to support you on your wellness journey.

Autumn Carter: Thank you again for being part of our vibrant community. I am genuinely excited to connect with you, hear your stories, and continue this important discussion in the weeks to come. Until next time, remember to prioritize your well being, embrace every season with grace, and always strive for wellness in every aspect of your motherhood journey.

Autumn Carter: Take care, and I can't wait to catch up with you soon.