Reframe & Reset Your Career: Job Search & Career Development Insights

Episode 97. Don’t Stay In Your Lane: A Guide To Finding & Succeeding In A New Job – Cynthia Pong

Looking for strategies to help you find a new job and thrive in it? I had the pleasure of discussing this, her book Don’t Stay In Your Lane: The Career Change Guide for Women of Color, and so much more with Cynthia Pong on Episode 97 of the Reframe & Reset Your Career podcast.
In this episode, we will learn about:
🔷 How Cynthia made small experiments which eventually lead to her pursuing a legal career,
🔷 Further qualifications are important but be intentional before allocating your time and money,
🔷 Understanding what success looks like for you in your career and your life,
🔷 Focus on your own progress and don’t compare yourself to others,
🔷 How Cynthia was strategic when managing burnout and transitioning from her legal career,
🔷 Locus of control and focusing on what you can control,
🔷 Building your brand,
🔷 Developing resilience and managing career setbacks, especially the unexpected ones,
🔷 Looking for small wins can help if you’re feeling stuck,
🔷 How to make networking events less daunting,
🔷 The importance of taking action and how it can create luck and
🔷 Cynthia’s top job search strategies.
Cynthia is an award-winning executive coach and speaker who empowers women of color leaders to advance their careers into positions of power. A Forbes Contributor and LinkedIn Top Voice for Job Search and Career, she has been featured in HBR, The Atlantic, and on NBC, CBS, NPR, and more.
As Founder and CEO of Embrace Change, Cynthia leads an elite, all-BIPOC team who provide specialized coaching and training programs for high-performing women of color up to the C-suite. Equipped with Cynthia’s strategic guidance, her clients break down barriers, lead with authenticity, and have collectively negotiated over $750K in salary increases.
Her Anthem Award-winning Leadership Accelerator program has propelled women of color to prestigious fellowships, promotions, and top graduate program admissions. Cynthia’s book, Don’t Stay in Your Lane: The Career Change Guide for Women of Color, has cemented her as a foremost voice on career advancement, negotiation, and thought leadership.
 
People & Resources Mentioned
N K Jemisin
Talking Heads
Dr Christian Busch (Episode 2 of Reframe & Reset Your Career Podcast)
Cynthia’s Forbes Article: How To Navigate Layoffs
Trevor Noah: Interview On Luck
 
Contact Cynthia
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/embracechangenyc/
Website: https://www.embracechange.nyc/
 
Reframe & Reset Your Career Resources & Contact Info
Website: https://www.harshaboralessa.com/ 
YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ReframeResetYourCareer 
LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reframe-reset-your-career/?viewAsMember=true
Newsletter: https://reframeandresetyourcareer.substack.com/ 
E-mail - reframeandresetyourcareer@harshaboralessa.com
Thank you for your continued support of Reframe & Reset Your Career, I do appreciate it. 
It would be great to hear from you, the listeners, and your thoughts about the podcast, YouTube channel or anything else, it's always a pleasure to hear your views. I have had some great reviews but not had any way of responding. The next episode with Irina Cozma will be available on Weds 13th August. 
 
*Reframe & Reset Your Career, including any comments made by the host and guests, is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice of any description, including but not restricted to financial, legal, investing or medical advice.*

Episode 96. Indispensable: The No BS Guide To Thriving And Succeeding At Work – Chris Hirst

Looking for unvarnished, practical insights to help you find a great job and succeed at work? I had the pleasure of discussing this, his book Indispensable: The No Bullsh*t Guide to Career Success which is out on 26th June, and so much more with Chris Hirst on Episode 96 of the Reframe & Reset Your Career podcast.
In this episode, we will learn about:
Living a life without regrets,
Working in advertising,
How to stand out at work,
Building your personal brand,
Why having the right attitude is vital to your career,
Managing your relationship with your boss and helping them reach their goals/ targets,
Leaders need to get things done,
How to be a good team member,
His top 3 strategies for being promoted and 
How to be more comfortable with networking, especially as an introvert.
Chris Hirst is the award-winning author of No Bullsh*t Leadership and No Bullsh*t Change, and was previously the Global CEO for Havas Creative, a multi-disciplinary marketing services network. He was also CEO at advertising agency Grey London. Once an engineering graduate working in a glass factory, his career path has taken him to the boardroom via Harvard Business School.
Named in 2018’s Evening Standard Power 1000 list and ranked one of the industry’s most influential CEOs, Chris is a regular commentator in national press including BBC News, The Politics Show, Evening Standard, CNBC, Financial Times and Sky News. Indispensable is his third book.
Chris is a cricket fan and enjoys playing tennis.
 
People & Resources Mentioned
Brendon McCullum
Hilary Mantel
 
Contact Chris
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishirst/
Website: https://chris-hirst.com/   
 
Reframe & Reset Your Career Resources & Contact Info
Website: https://www.harshaboralessa.com/ 
YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ReframeResetYourCareer 
LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reframe-reset-your-career/?viewAsMember=true
Newsletter: https://reframeandresetyourcareer.substack.com/ 
E-mail - reframeandresetyourcareer@harshaboralessa.com
Thank you for your continued support of Reframe & Reset Your Career, I do appreciate it. 
It would be great to hear from you, the listeners, and your thoughts about the podcast, YouTube channel or anything else, it's always a pleasure to hear your views. I have had some great reviews but not had any way of responding. The next episode will be available on Weds 16th July. 
 
*Reframe & Reset Your Career, including any comments made by the host and guests, is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice of any description, including but not restricted to financial, legal, investing or medical advice.*

Episode 95. Money And Love: How To Navigate Life’s Biggest Decisions – Abby Davisson

Looking for insights to help improve your decision making around money and love? I had the pleasure of discussing this, her book Money And Love, and so much more with Abby Davisson on Episode 95 of the Reframe & Reset Your Career podcast.
In this episode, we will learn about:
How Abby and her future husband took Professor Myra Strober’s, her co-author, class at Stanford,
Challenging the conventional wisdom that money and love decisions should be treated separately,
The 5 Cs framework for decision making,
The importance of communication and listening to the other person,
Don’t make assumptions and be honest about what you’re looking for,
Trying to understand the potential consequences of your actions,
People most regret the risks that they don’t take,
How using a decision tree can help enhance your decision making, and
Finding a potential partner.
Abby is the founding CEO of the Money and Love Institute and co-author of Money and Love with Stanford Professor Myra Strober. Prior to launching the Institute her career included almost a decade at global retailer Gap Inc., where she served as president of the Gap Foundation and co-founded the company’s employee resource group for parents.
She serves as an alumni career advisor and coach at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and has a BA from Yale University and an MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University.
She currently lives with her husband and two sons in San Francisco and loves dark chocolate and tennis.
 
People & Resources Mentioned
Daniel Kahneman
Daniel Pink
Baba Shiv
 
Contact Abby
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbydavisson/
Website: https://www.abbydavisson.com/  
Substack:  https://abbydavisson.substack.com/
 
Reframe & Reset Your Career Resources & Contact Info
Website: https://www.harshaboralessa.com/ 
YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ReframeResetYourCareer 
LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reframe-reset-your-career/?viewAsMember=true
Newsletter: https://reframeandresetyourcareer.substack.com/ 
E-mail - reframeandresetyourcareer@harshaboralessa.com
Thank you for your continued support of Reframe & Reset Your Career, I do appreciate it. 
It would be great to hear from you, the listeners, and your thoughts about the podcast, YouTube channel or anything else, it's always a pleasure to hear your views. I have had some great reviews but not had any way of responding. The next episode will be available on Weds 18th June. 
 
*Reframe & Reset Your Career, including any comments made by the host and guests, is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice of any description, including but not restricted to financial, legal, investing or medical advice.*
 
 

Episode 94. Unforgettable Presence: How To Boost Your Career By Being Seen & Gaining Influence – Lorraine K. Lee

Want to learn more about how you can build your presence and supercharge your career? I had the pleasure of discussing this, her book Unforgettable Presence, and so much more with Lorraine K. Lee on Episode 94 of the Reframe & Reset Your Career podcast.
In this episode, we will learn about:
How Lorraine started working in the tech industry,
The insights she gained from her tech career,
How to bounce back from layoff,
How introverts can succeed in their career,
Strategies to optimise LinkedIn for job search and your personal brand,
Shifting your mindset and being clear about your aspirations,
What is presence?,
Building your personal brand with the EPIC framework,
Ways to improve your communication & public speaking,
Using self-distancing techniques when making decisions about yourself and
How to get promoted.
Lorraine is an award-winning global keynote speaker, an instructor for Stanford Continuing Studies and LinkedIn Learning, and the author of Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influence, and Catapult Your Career (Wiley, 2025). She is recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice and has more than 300,000+ LinkedIn followers and over a decade of experience leading editorial teams at the world’s top tech firms.
Lorraine has been invited as a guest speaker to some of the world’s most recognizable brands including Zoom, Cisco, Amazon, ASICS, Hilton, and McKinsey and Company. She covers a wide range of topics including creating engaging virtual presentations, growing your presence on LinkedIn, effectively communicating in a virtual world, leading collaborative remote and distributed teams that thrive, and designing impactful virtual and hybrid meetings.
Before starting her own company, Lorraine was a founding editor at companies like Prezi, SlideShare, and LinkedIn. In these roles, she collaborated with global business leaders and helped launch core products including LinkedIn Daily Rundown and LinkedIn Newsletters. Lorraine has been featured in publications including Forbes, Inc., Bloomberg, ReadWrite, and Entrepreneur, and has also been a guest on many podcasts.
She received her BSJ from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and currently resides in San Francisco.
 
People & Resources Mentioned
Jenny Wood
Matt Abrahams
 
Contact Lorraine
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorraineklee/
Website: https://lorraineklee.com/
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/lorraineklee/
 
Reframe & Reset Your Career Resources & Contact Info
Website: https://www.harshaboralessa.com/ 
YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ReframeResetYourCareer 
LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reframe-reset-your-career/?viewAsMember=true
Newsletter: https://reframeandresetyourcareer.substack.com/ 
E-mail - reframeandresetyourcareer@harshaboralessa.com
Thank you for your continued support of Reframe & Reset Your Career, I do appreciate it. I have published a new edition of my newsletter on Substack, link above, please do check it out, I hope you find it helpful. 
It would be great to hear from you, the listeners, and your thoughts about the podcast, YouTube channel or anything else, it's always a pleasure to hear your views. I have had some great reviews but not had any way of responding. The next episode will be available on Weds 21st May. 
 
*Reframe & Reset Your Career, including any comments made by the host and guests, is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice of any description, including but not restricted to financial, legal, investing or medical advice.*
 

Episode 93. How Leaders Can Excel & Maintain Their Own & Their Team’s Wellbeing In The New World Of Work - Dina Denham Smith

Looking to learn how leaders can continue to excel whilst taking care of their own & their team’s wellbeing? I had the pleasure of discussing this, her new book Emotionally Charged, and so much more with Dina Denham Smith on Episode 93 of the Reframe & Reset Your Career podcast.
In this episode, we will learn about:
Being open to new experiences can lead to opportunities,
How to get unstuck & get promoted,
Strategies to help leaders cope with the emotional demands of leadership.
What is emotional labour?
Ways to motivate your team, even when you have low energy,
The importance of self care for leaders,
How to bounce back from emotionally demanding events,
The benefits of journaling to help recover from redundancy or other setbacks,
Pay attention to your emotions, they can provide important signals and information,
Insights into decision making and
The recovery paradox.
Dina is a seasoned leader and executive coach with a 25-year proven track record in helping people and teams excel. Dina’s clients include senior leaders and teams at premier brands such as Adobe, PwC, Gilead, Gap, Sephora, Goldman Sachs, Google, and Netflix; high-growth companies like Dropbox, DocuSign, and Stripe; and PE-backed start-ups shaping the world.
Dina has written over 60 articles on leadership and career success for the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Forbes and is frequently featured in international media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Business Insider, and the BBC.
She is the lead author of Emotionally Charged: How to Lead in the New World of Work (Oxford Press). An East Coast transplant, Dina now lives in the SF Bay Area with her husband, kids, and two spoiled pups. Outside of work, she is a competitive equestrian, avid skier and reader, foodie, and travel enthusiast.
 
People & Resources Mentioned
Man’s Search For Meaning – Viktor Frankl
James W. Pennebaker
Dr Gabija Toleikyte
 
Contact Dina
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dina-denham-smith/
Website: https://www.dinadsmith.com/
X (Twitter): https://x.com/DinaDSmith
 
Reframe & Reset Your Career Resources & Contact Info
Website: https://www.harshaboralessa.com/ 
YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ReframeResetYourCareer 
LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reframe-reset-your-career/?viewAsMember=true
E-mail - reframeandresetyourcareer@harshaboralessa.com
Thank you for your continued support of Reframe & Reset Your Career, I do appreciate it. I now have a new website, see link above, please do check it out, I hope you find it helpful. 
It would be great to hear from you, the listeners, and your thoughts about the podcast, YouTube channel or anything else, it's always a pleasure to hear your views. I have had some great reviews but not had any way of responding. The next episode will be available on Weds 23rd April. 
 
*Reframe & Reset Your Career, including any comments made by the host and guests, is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice of any description, including but not restricted to financial, legal, investing or medical advice.*
 

Episode 92. Wild Courage: Overcome Your Fears To Go And Get What You Want In Your Life & Career – Jenny Wood

Want to learn more about the 9 traits that can help you in your life and career? I had the pleasure of discussing this, her book Wild Courage and so much more with Jenny Wood on Episode 92 of the Reframe & Reset Your Career podcast.
In this episode, we will learn about:
How she overcame her doubts to ask out her husband on the subway,
Showing resilience to land her job at Google,
Her book and the 9 traits that can help you in your life and career,
The Spotlight Effect,
Being weird and standing out from the crowd,
The benefits of being selfish (sometimes) and how this helped a vocalist get her fair share from a smash hit record,
Saying yes to the big projects and cutting back on the NAP (not actually promotable) work,
Learning to say no,
Improving your verbal communication skills,
Identifying and leaning into your strengths/ power assets, and
Building your personal brand.
Jenny spent 18 years at Google climbing the ranks from entry-level to executive, most recently running a large operations team that helps drive billions of advertising revenue a year.
She created one of Google's largest career development programs ever, loved by tens of thousands of employees worldwide. She is now a speaker and the author of a new book Wild Courage: Go After What You Want And Get It.
She earned her B.A. in Economics & International Business at Brandeis and was a research associate at Harvard Business School. She drinks tea and is a trained pilot, living in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and two kids.
 
People & Resources Mentioned
Carol Dweck – Mindset
Clare Torry
Vanessa Patrick - The Power Of Saying No
 
Contact Jenny
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyilles/
Website: https://itsjennywood.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsjennywood/
 
Reframe & Reset Your Career Resources & Contact Info
Website: https://www.harshaboralessa.com/ 
YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ReframeResetYourCareer 
LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reframe-reset-your-career/?viewAsMember=true
E-mail - reframeandresetyourcareer@harshaboralessa.com
Thank you for your continued support of Reframe & Reset Your Career, I do appreciate it. I now have a new website, see link above, please do check it out, I hope you find it helpful. 
It would be great to hear from you, the listeners, and your thoughts about the podcast, YouTube channel or anything else, it's always a pleasure to hear your views. I have had some great reviews but not had any way of responding. The next episode will be available on Weds 9th April. 
 
*Reframe & Reset Your Career, including any comments made by the host and guests, is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice of any description, including but not restricted to financial, legal, investing or medical advice.*
 

Episode 91. The Bright Side: How Optimism Can Change Your Life & Career – Sumit Paul-Choudhury

How can optimism help transform your life and career? I had the pleasure of discussing this, his new book The Bright Side and so much more with Sumit Paul-Choudhury on Episode 91 of the Reframe & Reset Your Career podcast.
In this episode, we will learn about:
How Sumit developed his leadership skills and gained responsibility early,
The difficulties that come with leadership and how to manage them,
Why should you be optimistic in such a difficult world,
The Stockdale Paradox,
Unrealistic versus dispositional optimism,
Optimism and growth mindset,
Take your shot, you may succeed,
Fatalism versus controlling your future, and
Learning lessons from the past.
Sumit is an astrophysicist-turned-journalist, former editor in chief of New Scientist magazine and has served as a judge for the Baillie Gifford Prize (then Samuel Johnson Prize), the Wellcome Prize and the Costa Book Awards. The Bright Side is his first book.
He currently runs Alternity, a creative studio dedicated to what could, should and might be: alternative histories, social experiments and speculative futures. He trained as a physicist at Imperial College, where he earned a first-class B.Sc. and has an M.Sc. in Mathematics at Queen Mary & Westfield.
 
People & Resources Mentioned
Gottfried Leibniz
Oedipus Rex – Sophocles
Jim Collins – Good To Great
Voltaire - Candide
 
Contact Sumit
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumitpc/
Website: https://alternity.com/about-sumit/
 
Reframe & Reset Your Career Resources & Contact Info
Website: https://www.harshaboralessa.com/ 
YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ReframeResetYourCareer 
LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reframe-reset-your-career/?viewAsMember=true
E-mail - reframeandresetyourcareer@harshaboralessa.com
Thank you for your continued support of Reframe & Reset Your Career, I do appreciate it. I now have a new website, see link above, please do check it out, I hope you find it helpful. 
It would be great to hear from you, the listeners, and your thoughts about the podcast, YouTube channel or anything else, it's always a pleasure to hear your views. I have had some great reviews but not had any way of responding. The next episode will be available on Weds 9th April. 
 
*Reframe & Reset Your Career, including any comments made by the host and guests, is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice of any description, including but not restricted to financial, legal, investing or medical advice.*
 

Episode 90. How To Develop Your Creative Process, Create Inspiring Content & Develop Your Online Presence – David Hartley

Looking for ideas to develop your creative process, create inspiring content and develop your online presence ? I had the pleasure of discussing this and so much more with David Hartley on Episode 90 of the Reframe & Reset Your Career podcast.
In this episode, we will learn about:
How a cold email helped him connect with a well known content creator,
Focus on providing value through your content, your audience will find you,
Why it’s crucial to find your own voice but it may take time,
David’s creative process and how he generates ideas,
The importance of personal branding and creating a digital footprint,
David’s top ideas for starting a YouTube channel,
Take action, don’t overthink things,
Focus on being consistent and enjoying the process not the results, and
The power of storytelling.
David is a London-based musician and educational content creator with a passion for making music education accessible to all. His journey began with classical guitar studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, followed by a Master's degree in Music at King's College London.
A skilled educator, David has translated his passion for music into a successful online platform where his engaging videos have garnered millions of views, he currently has over 125k YT subscribers and over 55k on TikTok. His content explores a diverse range of musical topics, presented in a way that resonates with learners of all levels and backgrounds.
Beyond his educational endeavors, David remains an active musician, expressing his creativity through classical guitar performance, songwriting, and electronic music composition.
Here is a clip from the episode where we talk about the benefits of sending call emails and how it helped him connect with a successful YouTuber, Ali Abdaal.
 
 
 
People & Resources Mentioned
The Game Of Tennis – W Timothy Gallwey
Ali Abdaal
 
Contact David
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hartley-4a470086/
Website: https://www.musicwithdavid.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@davidhartley94
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@davidhartley94
 
Reframe & Reset Your Career Resources & Contact Info
Website: https://www.harshaboralessa.com/ 
YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ReframeResetYourCareer 
LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reframe-reset-your-career/?viewAsMember=true
E-mail - reframeandresetyourcareer@harshaboralessa.com
Thank you for your continued support of Reframe & Reset Your Career, I do appreciate it. I now have a new website, see link above, please do check it out, I hope you find it helpful. 
It would be great to hear from you, the listeners, and your thoughts about the podcast, YouTube channel or anything else, it's always a pleasure to hear your views. I have had some great reviews but not had any way of responding. The next episode will be available on Weds 12th March. 
 
*Reframe & Reset Your Career, including any comments made by the host and guests, is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice of any description, including but not restricted to financial, legal, investing or medical advice.*