Feeling stuck or unmotivated in your career path? There's now a book for that. Phyllis Ehrlich, Author of 'Rocket Your Potential, A Career Handbook for Rising Stars & Future', joined Cheddar News to give tips on how to reach your full professional potential, get out of your work rut, and build a career even in a virtual workplace.

New Book Helps You Rocket Your Career Potential

switch switching gears here, Are you? In the early days of your career? Are you feeling stuck unmotivated? Here's a book for that rocket, your potential, a career handbook for rising stars and future women leaders helps you create a plan to accelerate your professional career. Joining me now is the author of that book, Phyllis, ehrlich Phyllis, Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for coming on. What can readers expect when they pick up your book? Hi Hannah, thank you for having me today and I'm a big fan of cheddar news. Um hopefully what readers can expect is to find a friend or companion to help them along their career journey. Um the early years of one's career, we enter the workplace, we face so many challenges and nobody gives us an instruction manual. So Phyllis, what inspired you to write this book in the first place? Well, I've been so fortunate to have so many people and so many leadership programs that have helped me propel my career. So the book is really a labor of love and it's my way of giving back and paying it forward and go ahead. No, no, I didn't mean to interrupt, Please continue. And I was gonna say that two minds are better than one. Um, so my husband Joel, a sales and marketing executive and college professor at Fashion Institute of Technology has also helped me by sharing his perspectives in the book as well. And joe Joel and I are very passionate about mentoring young people and helping them enter and excel in the workplace. What I love about this is rocket or potential addresses specific work themes in four sections, can you walk us through those and how they can help people really realize their full career potential. Absolutely. Um and I chose the rocket theme because I use the word rocket as a verb and we really are all the pilot of our own career path. Um so the book has four themes. The first one is assemble your flight crew, um and it's essential to develop relationships and really to build your support network, because this is something that's hopefully going to sustain you throughout your entire career, and then we go to blast off where I asked readers to look inward and really think about the mindset and the resources that we have to propel us. Um those are things like working smarter and harder than anyone else paying your dues, figuring different ways that you can stand out from the crowd. Um and then the longest part of the book is navigate your course, and this is where we look at some of the potential landmines and opportunities that can pop up and in today's rapidly changing world, um there are so many challenges and obstacles that we can face along our career journey um and figure out how to solve for them. What about building your career in a virtual workplace, how can someone still show initiative when they're working remotely or in a hybrid setting? Yeah, that's a great question Hina. Um and it's definitely more challenging and it's definitely more challenging for young people just starting out your career because if you've been in the workplace for a while and you have established relationships, it was a bit easier to deal virtually. But if you're just beginning your career, it's really important to try to connect with people virtually what I suggest is, you know, invite somebody to a virtual cup of coffee or a virtual happy hour or be the person in your office that organizes the virtual trivia contest. You know, I also recommend that you start each meeting by trying to connect with people person, You know, ask them about their weekend, what are their kids up to or talk about different topical subjects just to break the ice and build trust and rapport, have about 30 seconds, but I want to ask what is the biggest piece of advice you would give, someone who's feeling unmotivated in their career path? Um I think find ways to excite yourself, What are you passionate about and figure out how you can bring some of that passion to the workplace, volunteer for projects or initiatives beyond your daily responsibilities. Um and if you really feel it's time to move on, explore different potential roles or career opportunities, both internally and externally. Great advice Phyllis ehrlich, author of Rocket your potential career handbook for rising stars and future women leaders, Thank you so much