Know Your Value, Celebrate Your Wins & Q1 Update

Hello and welcome to another week of the Chloe Careers Podcast. My name is Chloe. I'm your host and career coach, and this is the space where we talk all things job search, careers, being a woman in business, and being a woman in general in her 30s, which is where I am at right now. I also share a lot about my own journey being a business founder, being someone that was in the career space for a long time, and I share a lot of the things that I learned through that journey with you, and I keep you up to date with what I'm going through right now. So this episode is an interesting one because I'm going to dive into a topic first and foremost. Usually I talk a little bit about myself and what I'm going through, a bit of an update there, but I thought I'd dive straight into the topic of the week. And there's going to be two episodes this week because I did record last week, but unfortunately I had a new microphone. The microphone did not work. So here we are re-recording, but these things happen. Such is life. We move on. Anyway, so the topic of the day is one that I've seen come up a fair bit with people that I've been working with recently, and that is this concept of our value, how much we are worth, which then really impacts how we're showing up in our job search and our career. And more importantly, how we're showing up in the application as well as the interview. Now, a lot of people I've worked with recently have come to me and said that they find it very uncomfortable to talk about themselves in an interview. Now, being in Australia, if you're listening, tuning in from Australia, we are the people that invented Tall Poppy Syndrome. So, you know, You know, it's that whole thing of if someone's talking about themselves in a room, someone's going to say, oh, what's— who's that wanker? Like, why are they talking about themselves? That's so weird. No one wants to know that. So all of that kind of messaging and energy then makes you feel like no one wants to hear about me, no one wants me to talk about myself, which is very far from the truth, you know. And if you are someone who wants to get ahead, then you actually need to talk about yourself, the things you're doing well, the achievements the achievements that you have and what your strengths and skills are in the career space. And when you go into an interview, the thing that blows my mind is that we're scared to talk about ourselves, but the interview is the space where we need to sell ourselves the most. That company wants to know how good you are and all the great things that you've achieved so that then you can go and do that in their organization. So you actually can't sell yourself enough in that interview. Now, of course, you've gotta be strategic about it and you've gotta share relevant information and you don't wanna be arrogant, but you do want to sell yourself as much as possible to be the person they give the offer to. If you're at networking events and you're meeting new people, they want to know who you are. Like, they're genuinely interested in who you are as a person. And if that person can help you get ahead, you want them to know who you are, what you can do, and what you can bring. It's, you know, these thoughts that we have that people don't want to hear us, or they don't, you know, we feel that our voice doesn't need to be heard. I want to encourage us to move away from that. I can personally speak to that. I've spent a portion of my life thinking that my voice wasn't important enough to be heard. I've been in relationships where I was silenced. I've definitely been in those situations where someone will say to me, "Who are you? Tell me what you do, blah, blah, blah." I'll freeze. I won't know what to say. and in the moment I'll think, oh, I don't really know what to say. Like, this is— I don't— I can't talk about myself. And then when I start talking about myself, I'm like, shut up, shut up, shut up, no one wants to hear that, stop talking, stop talking. Like, I've definitely been in that situation, and because I've got myself to a space where I can now very confidently talk about myself and, um, you know, speak to my own journey and the things that I am great at and, and, and who I am as a person, like, I I want to share that with you. So, you know, I think this is a really important topic to speak on because of the fact that so many of us have this fear or uncomfortability around talking about ourselves and what we do and what we're really good at. Honestly, every single client I work with, when I say, like, we start practicing around building your pitch or handling the question, tell me about yourself, or handling the question around your strengths, I'll say to them, okay, so, you know, let's write down your 3 top strengths, your 3 pick 3 top skills. Now tell me, tell me about those strengths and skills in a paragraph and how good you are at all of them. And every time when I ask people that question, they're like, oh, they get awkward. They can't, they can't speak to it because we have this whole thing of feeling awkward about talking about ourselves. Now I will say when I was in the States, and I love America, like I love, I can't wait to get back to New York. Um, when I was in the States, that was a place, especially because I'm in New York, where I learned very quickly that you need to be really good about giving someone everything about who you are, what you do, and what you're good at, what your goals are, what your ambitions are within like 60 seconds, not even. Like you have people's attention and they will give it to you, but they're gonna be like, okay, who are you? What do you do? How do you fit in my circle? How can we potentially help each other? And you're only gonna like understand how to, or get to know how to do that if you practice it because it's a skill. Pitching yourself is a skill. Talking about yourself in a way that highlights your strengths, skills, who and what you're all about, what you're good at is a skill. It's not something that you can just wing because you're going to forget things that are key to you and your journey. And then you'll finish that conversation going, what did I actually say? And did I tell them about that thing that I recently achieved or that big project that I worked on? You've got to have that really you do have to have that really, um, I guess, clear as to how you are articulating, articulating yourself in that way. Now, um, what I also wanted to touch on with that is the reason that we also don't feel confident about talking about our value and what we're good at is that we have this fear of celebrating ourselves. Now, I have, yeah, like, same as a lot of people potentially listening to this, I've had fears of celebrating myself, and I've had moments of going, oh, I shouldn't really be known myself, no one wants about that. But again, so far from the truth. Like, the more you can celebrate yourself and the things that you're achieving, the more you're actually giving other people permission to do the same thing. So my task for you this week is to celebrate yourself for one thing. What is one thing you're really proud of yourself about? Like, a piece— it could be something to do with your work, personal, whatever it is. What is something you're really proud of that you can celebrate yourself for and tell someone about it? Like, who can you tell about this really, like, who can you tell about this really cool thing that you're really proud of? You know, it's one thing to celebrate it within yourself, but then it's a completely other thing to share that, especially like sharing it on a platform. So this then takes me into the main part of this episode, which is going through my own wins and losses of quarter one, because we're here to celebrate the wins, but we're also here to be transparent and talk about the things that haven't worked yet. So let's get into it. Okay, now this whole wins and losses thing, for me, it's really about my business rebuild and how I'm kind of coming back from a huge upheaval, upheaval in my life. Um, so, you know, there's a, there's a bit of personal and there's a bit of business in here. So the first thing is, uh, we're going from sort of kind of umbrella this. We're going from sad, hurt, and broke to hot, healed, and rich. That's just what— that's what my journey is. It's been 3 months and it's already been a journey. So the first thing, win 10,000 new incredible humans following me. Oh my God, like 10,000 more people, you guys, are following me on my social media platforms. And I was like, when I saw that stat, I was like, oh my God, this is huge. Because, you know, I do have quite a big following on social media. I've got 75,000 people following me across multiple platforms, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, but I haven't had any real kind of growth for over a year now, easily. Like I kind of skyrocketed really early when I started the platforms in 2023. And then I just went stagnant for a really long time. Definitely all through last year when I was going through a lot of personal upheaval and then the year before, I don't think I grew for a very long time as well. So to go from not going anywhere and then having 10,000 people follow me in 3 months is a massive, massive win for me. This has also been a massive learning curve for me because when I first started, started the business, I grew really quickly. I had a lot of wins early on. And for anyone that's listening to this and you are a founder or you're going to start a business, this is a really important note because if you start a business and the winds start coming in really quickly, you start scaling really quickly, you kind of are on this, like, I don't know, like you're on this roller coaster just like going up, up, up, up, up, and you're like, oh my God, this is amazing, all these great things are happening. But you kind of forget like that this is not just a spark that's gonna just happen and then never happen again. It's like, oh no, this is a business. Like I need to kind of manage my business and how it moves from here. So for me, I was kind of like just taking it as I go. I was like, yeah, this is awesome, I'll just figure it out. I'm just flying by the seat of my pants, whatever. Like, yeah, let's do this thing, let's do that thing. Nothing. You know, I did not have the proper system operations, um, nurturing the audience strategies in place that I have now. So now I am growing quite quickly again, and I'm doing it so differently to how I did before. Like, I'm putting my backend systems in place, I'm looking at my marketing, my funnels, my automations. Like, what is the journey as soon as someone lands on my content, what is their journey from there? If someone goes on my website, what is the buyer's journey from there? How do they interact with me? How do they— like, where do they start? Where's the midpoint? Where do I want them to go? Like, there is so much more strategy around this that I just did not have before. And the other big thing is I'm really connecting with the people that are following me. Like, I've— I have automated messages that go out to everyone now. As soon as you follow me, you get an automatic message from me, and I've obviously written the message. I'm not going to send it out to 10,000 people, but I've written the message, people get that message, and then I'm there to then continue conversations with people in my DMs. So I'm really looking after the people that are there, and I have this mission actually to go through all of my followers now. I know that's a lot, it's like 75,000 people. I want to go through all of my followers and actually reconnect with people because social media is such a huge space, right? And we're following all these different people. So it's like, well, if you're following me, like, let's connect, let's actually be humans through the screen. So that was a massive win for me, and I'm loving how much I am connecting with every single person that follows me. Okay, still pushing shit uphill financially. Loss. This is, uh, this is just going to be— I know I'm not giving the right energy to it right now, but the financial piece for me is a bit of a struggle at the moment. So Yes, things are picking back up again after all the work that I've been doing, but at the moment I am catching up on bills. I'm saving for a sperm donor and just trying to live. So money is feeling still like quite a scarce thing at the moment. Um, I am really confident and I just have this really good intuitive feeling that the big wins are coming again. Like I went through a really strong period in business when I was making, you know, $15,000, $20,000 months. Now I'm like making literally a quarter of that. So, you know, it's, it's been a journey to build it back up again. So I'm aiming to get back to $10K months, I would say within like this month and the next, and then get back onto that $15K, $20K, and then keep building from there. Like I kind of skyrocketed to that $20K point and then I, yeah, like I just didn't have the business set up properly to manage that. And then obviously when I went through a really bad time personally, that had a big impact. So the financial piece, Big wins are coming, but at the moment, still a bit of a struggle. Sober and coffee-free. Absolute win. Oh my gosh. I can't believe that I haven't, like, I can believe it, but I can't believe that on December 31st, 2025, I was like, nope, I'm going to start a sober journey. I'm not drinking again. I'm not going to rely on alcohol to numb pain, get me through the day. I'm going to use myself and regulate myself so I can manage that. So from Jan 1st, I have not had a drink. So it's 6th of April. And yeah, I haven't had a drink since last year, and that feels really, really good. I've also been coffee-free. I stopped drinking coffee— gosh, it would have been in March, like 6 weeks ago. And again, like, I, I don't have like those intense coffee spikes. Like, you know, I, I was that person that would have every morning— I'd wake up, have a like strong coffee, then I go to the cafe, get like a double shot, and then I'd have another coffee in the afternoon. So I was having a lot of coffee. And yeah, I just like— I remember those caffeine spikes, and you're like, whoa, I'm so buzzed right now. Now I'm not having that, but I just have this much more consistent energy that just maintains throughout the day. Like, I wake up, I go for my walk, I regulate, I get ready for the day, and yeah, I'm just like, I'm a much more even keel energy, which I am enjoying a lot more. And I find that I'm not really crashing anymore, which is really cool. And honestly, my skin is loving me for it. Like, if you're watching this, YouTube, This is the skin of a 36-year-old, no Botox. Like, oh my God, can we just appreciate this for a moment? Um, yeah, so that's been a massive win for me, and I honestly feel amazing for it. Okay, still not 100% secure for dating. This is a bit of a loss. Now, I will say that I was on a call with my mentor earlier today, and she said that she thinks I should try and get myself back out there, try and go on another date. I don't know, like, I feel like I keep attempting to put myself back out there, but the lasting impact from the abuse of the last relationship still lingers. I'm not fully recovered, I'm not fully healed, and I'm okay with that. You know, it's— I know it's going to take a long time, but I still get reminded of that person and painful moments come back, and I get I don't like using the word triggered. Maybe I get pulled back to moments that I'm trying to heal myself from. So not quite ready to dive into the dating pool yet. Who knows? I might test myself and go out on a date, but it's not something that's happening. I don't know. Like, yeah, it's still a bit of a journey for me, but I will say, like, you know, I'm kind of over being single. I've been single for a while now, and You know, I know there's all this content out there for people saying like, you know, saying, oh, being single is amazing. You get to live your best life, like thriving as a single woman. Da da da da. Yeah, that's great. And I've been doing that for quite some time. Cool. Now I'm kind of over that. Like I'm ready to have a partner. I'm ready to have that person that I can call after a long day. I'm ready to have that person I can cuddle up with on the couch and just have that person in my corner. And yes, I have wonderful, amazing, brilliant friends, but Anyone that's in a really good partnership knows that there's a key difference with having your own person, your partner. So that's that. Uh, we'll keep you posted on how we go on that. Okay, gym gains, absolute win. If you guys are following me on Instagram, have you seen my muscle definition lately? Have you seen my abs? Like, honestly, I've been training at the gym consistently for months now, 5 to 6 times a week, and it's so good to have my muscle tone back. Like, I've always been a gym girl. I was, you know, at the gym in my teens, and then I got into bodybuilding, then I was powerlifting, and I run a half marathon, um, you know. And now I'm just— I did CrossFit actually as well, and now I'm just, you know, consistently doing weight training and a bit of cardio as well. But it just feels so good to be fit and toned again. And whenever the gym— I feel like the most— I don't know, like, I feel really in my element. I feel in my element at work, but then when I'm at the gym, it's like I feel like the most strongest badass boss bitch version of myself, and it's just such a good feeling because I'm so confident in the weight section. Like, I think it's like anything, you know, like when, when you're really good at something— and I know I'm really good at weight training, like it's always been a strength of mine, no pun intended— um, but when you feel really good about something and you feel confident, it's just like, I don't know, it feels really good. So gym gains, absolute win for me. Um, new program launched, two more on the way. Massive, massive win for my business. Now, this has been something, and the podcast is something, something like this as well. Like, I've been thinking on this for over a year, and I just haven't— I'm gonna be kind to myself and say, like, I didn't— I wasn't able to function properly last year to be able to do this. And now I'm in a new state of healing, a new state of being, that I am really focusing on my personal development and how I am operating day to day, that I am able to put these things, like actually make these things happen and build these programs, which, you know, is such a massive growth part of my business. Because as I said earlier, when I first started, it was all just like winging it and figuring things out as I go. Now I'm going like, okay, what is my business strategy? What is my users' like buyer's journey? Whenever someone follows me, what is their like, how do they first interact with me? Where do they go to from there? You know, building out an entire new offer suite, which is what I've done, literally is changing the foundation of my business. Like, I've built a new program, I've got 2 more coming on the way, and that is going to give people an entire journey of Chloe Spillane Careers. And that's something that I'm really excited about, and I'm really proud of myself. I'm definitely celebrating myself on that one and getting that through. Okay, this one's a little bit emotional. I guess it's— I don't know, this one makes me feel a little bit flat, but it's okay. We're keeping things real here. I wouldn't say I'm 100% back to my happy laughing self, and that's a bit of a loss. You know, I spent so long being emotionally numb in survival mode, uh, that I, I couldn't feel anything else than a few common themes, which was fear, anxiety, and the ups and downs of a, you know, anyone that knows the terminology, a trauma bond. So, you know, these really intense highs and then the lowest of lows. So, you know, I never felt safe to feel my normal emotions, um, and it's a really confronting thing to happen. But whenever I feel, uh, like an emotion of happiness or joy, it feels foreign, like it doesn't feel like a normal emotion, and it almost like it surprises me in a way. And I think that's quite sad if I really think about it. And I know I still have a lot of healing to do, but I'm again just being kind to myself and letting myself go through that journey. And a key example again is of this is when, um, you know, my sister and her husband and their children, my niece and nephew, were visiting for Easter. And I walked into the house one day and my nephew just like greeted me with so much joy. And in that moment I was taken aback and it almost makes me emotional at this, but I was like, oh, no one's greeted me with that kind of happiness for as long as I can remember. And that just makes me really like, it's pretty sad. Um, but then it also makes me go, you know, I have to really appreciate, appreciate the special moments like that. Um, and I really look forward to the day when I do have someone that can give me this kind of love that I know that I can give. So that was That's still a bit of a loss, but we're working through it. Okay, okay, next. Brand deals and collaboration opportunities rolling in. This is a massive win. Again, like, I am someone that I will put myself out there for opportunities all the time, and I'm always backing myself that things will happen. But I'm not going to sit here and wait for things to be handed to me or put in my lap. I'm like, right, I want these things to happen. I want this, I want to see this change. Let me put myself out there to make these things happen for me. So I have been reaching out to brands, like a lot of content deals that I did earlier on. Like, I've been reaching out to these companies and all these agencies and saying like, hey, you know, this is my updated media kit. What do you think? Got any campaigns coming up that would be suitable for me? And literally, I sent an email one day and 24 hours later they came back to me with a brand. They were like, oh, this brand would be amazing for you. Thanks so much for getting in touch again. So, and that's like worth $5,000. So like putting myself out there time and time again, the opportunities are starting to roll in. And I will always say that the more you put yourself out there, and if you know how to articulate yourself effectively, those opportunities will start coming back to you. So that's been a massive win. Now, the biggest win for me, which I think— and I've kept it till last because I just think it's such a great buildup to this— but posting content every single day. This has been an absolute win for me. Last year I was struggling to get a few pieces of content out week to week. Now I post every single day on multiple platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube every day, LinkedIn 5 days a week. Honestly, that's insane. If I told myself that literally 5 months ago, I'd go, oh God, absolutely not. You're not going to be able to do that. Now I'm at a point where I'm even posting twice a day. I put a reel out this morning. I'm probably going to put out another piece of content today. Every day, twice a day. That's insanity to me, but that is what is, you know, guiding my success now, is that increased capacity to be able to just deliver and deliver and deliver and keep going. Like, this is huge, and this is going to really contribute to the success of my business. Like, me being an absolute content machine and getting as much information out there as possible to get as much exposure, that is what is going to get me success. Like, helped me be successful, and I am just on an absolute mission and nothing can stop me now. And it's such a good feeling to be at that point. You know, content always used to be something that was really hard, a struggle, and now it's, now it's just this seamless thing that I just, you know, I am still figuring out my systems. Like, I, I've gone, I've just hired, uh, my intern, which is super exciting. Hired Izzy. She's starting with me after the Easter break, and, um, she's really helping me kind of get those systems in place. But that's kind of about you know, my content systems, batching. I probably can batch for like a fortnight, but we batch, we schedule, I plan everything. Like, I'm still kind of managing all of that, but we're definitely getting there, which is super exciting. So that's my Q1 update— wins, losses, everything in between. And I think I also wanted to share, you know, this is Q1, we're a quarter of the way through the year, we still got a long way to go. You know, there's— if you have things that you want to reach, visions that you have, things that you want to feel, you know, moments that you want to exist, these can still happen for you. You can still be the change that you want to see. And I don't want to sound cliché in saying that, but, you know, sometimes I think we just let time pass us by. Like, we just go day to day, we go through the motions, and we don't really kind of grab hold as to what's happening in front of us right now. You know, if you can look at what's presently happening to you right now, like what you were dealing with right now, and is that contributing to where you want to go? And if it is, great, keep going. If it's not, change it. Like, you still have time, but you— if you keep avoiding it and you keep taking time for granted, that time will be gone and you won't have those moments to make the changes that you want. So it's like when I was talking about productivity last week, stop taking time, taking too much time to make decisions. Make decisions faster. Give your brain more space to have more capacity to deliver more things. That's why I'm operating right now, and it's, it's working hugely. I think as well, to finish up today's episode, what I'm really kind of manifesting towards and taking huge action towards is where I want to be at the end of the year. The feeling that I'm going to have when I see that all my dreams are starting to become my reality, the things that I'm manifesting, the things that are on my vision board, like they're going to start to come to life for me. And the person that I am currently aspiring to be every day, I am, I'm her. But the thing I realize is that she is already here. She's just waiting for me to catch up, and I'm going to catch up. I'm going to get there. I really am. And it's really cool to have these podcast episodes happening now, and then when we get to the end of the year, we can look back at this and go Wow, we did it. We really did it. Amazing. Well, thank you so much everyone for tuning in today. Um, remember the task from the start of the episode, celebrate yourself for one thing this week, one thing that you're really good at, one thing that you're really proud at. We're gonna start getting more comfortable talking about ourselves, our value, what we can do, what we can bring. And we're gonna start looking at how we're dealing with time. You know, we've had a quarter of the year, we still have plenty more to go. Get real with what you wanna achieve this year. And start making change now if you need to make change to get to that point. Thanks again, everyone. See you again this week with the catch-up episode, and we're going to be diving into how to make your career work for you, not the other way around. I look forward to seeing you then.