Office Hours / AMA: I'm the Founder & CEO of Simone, a 500 Global-backed social wellness platform for women. Ex-Google, ex-Clinton Foundation, career coach and Maven instructor

MariaWF·Dec 16, 2022

Posted in:Navigating Career Transitions Advice Events Personal Growth Career Growth

By way of intro: I'm the Founder & CEO of Simone, a 500 Global-backed social wellness platform for women, closing the gender gap in health research. Ex-Google, ex-Clinton Foundation, ex-laywer, ex-management consultant. Also a career coach and Maven instructor. Have lived and worked across US, Australia, Asia and Europe. Mother of 2.

As I get older (wiser?) and time starts to feel more finite, I've been asking myself more and more: "What sparks joy for you?" Not in terms of objects I own but where I spend my time.

I've discovered that what sparks joy the most for me is to meet other ambitious humans and help them find more mastery, autonomy and purpose in their work.

So if that resonates and you find yourself thinking about any of the below transitions:

changing careers entirely and reinvesting yourself from the ground up
founding your own company
freelancing
coaching
finding a gig abroad
switching roles internally within your current company
teaching as an adjunct professor
starting an Amazon/Shopify/Etsy business,
experimenting with a side hustle,
finding a new creative outlet
how to juggle career with becoming a new parent

...then, hit me up with questions!

I've been there and can speak to it firsthand - made many mistakes, learned the hard way, and here to say - it's worth it, do it, you won't regret it! BUT... it also pays to do it with your eyes wide open and to be as intentional as possible.

If I can help at all, drop questions here or join me at a live Ask Me Anything - next Thursday Dec 22 at 5pm PT: https://lu.ma/7t1yaazx

Iynna·Dec 17, 2022

Hi Maria and welcome on Elpha! It's so nice to meet you! I will try my best to come to the AMA but might not be able to. That said I'd love to learn more about your experience as an Adjunct Professor, how you went about it etc.

MariaWF·Dec 22, 2022

Hi Iynna, I'm more than happy to find 20 mins one-on-one if the AMA timing doesn't work for you. Feel free to send me an email at [email protected] and we can get it set up.On your question about becoming an Adjunct Professor, it was a long-standing professional goal of mine and here are the steps I personally took to progress closer to that goal:1) sought out opportunities to facilitate workshops or otherwise deliver educational content in front of groups of people (ranging from a small team to hundreds of people)2) sought out others who were already Adjunct Professors and offered to guess-lecture one class for them in their semester3) applied (e.g. NYU takes applications for Adjunct Professors), and had recommendations put in from the Adjunct Professors I had guess lectured for.Plenty more detail I can go into - esp around the why and how of the above steps. Feel free to set up time and we can go deeper if of interest.I highly, highly recommend the experience if you're thinking about it, and it's honestly easier to pull off than it may appear.