We were lucky to catch up with Debra Rich Gettleman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Debra, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

Corporate America matches job responsibilities to skill sets without considering the inner core, passions, and emotional intelligence of individual job seekers. As a reinvention specialist, I work with people in job transition to help them truly discover their individual purpose and mission and then to create a professional narrative that showcases who they are while also highlighting their innate talents, skills, and passions.

Most career consultants think it’s enough to design a resume and teach candidates how to do a bit of LinkedIn networking and searching. That’s a tiny sliver of what it takes to land a great job these days. They waste client’s time and money and they have no stake in whether or not someone succeeds.

Hiring managers and recruiters look at thousands of resumes and LinkedIn profiles daily. They sift through the same empty pages that tell them nothing about an individual; about who someone really is, why they are the real deal, the right fit, the value add that will make their company soar to new heights.

Try looking at 100 resumes for corporate management positions and you’ll see the same skills over and over. My job is to make a candidate come alive, tell their story, make a person leap off the page.

I work with clients to find that internal spark that no one else has and to create a professional narrative through dynamic resume building, crafting powerful LinkedIn profiles, coaching and preping for interviews, writing personal cover letters and follow up notes.

My commitment is to help job seekers take a step back and really find something that fulfills their personal mission and also provides them the financial compensation they deserve. For so many people, those two things feel like an impossible combination. But they are not! And I have seen over and over again that once someone taps into their inner core and finds their true passion, they will find the meaningful personal, professional, and financial fulfillment they have been seeking.

Sure, there are a lot of self-help books that claim to help people discover their “inner truth” and find a way to make money with that knowledge. But, the reality is that you need a guide for this kind of in depth self assessment. And you also need a coach who can navigate the corporate climate and ensure that a job seeker understands and hones the skills they will need to land their next position.

I’ve coached corporate lawyers who moved into amazing Executive Director positions with non-profits that align with their personal and professional mission. I’ve worked with Customer Service Directors who used their transferable skills of emotional intelligence and conflict resolution to shift into Pharmaceutical Sales and increase their income exponentially. I’ve had teachers who were frustrated with low salaries and burnout move into corporate curricula development and training, medical professionals suffering from burnout build incredibly successful lactation clinics, television videographers with jobs going nowhere who opened their own media companies.

I don’t know of anyone else in the corporate career coaching or consulting business who understands that landing the perfect position starts with internal investigation and self-assessment, the kind of work you can’t do with some arbitrary career aptitude tests like Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Strong Interest Inventory (SII) or CliftonStrengths (formerly StrengthsFinder).

I consider myself a creative artist whose medium is human beings. I can see raw talent and have the ability to help people mold that talent into incredible works of art that are completely unique and dynamic. Reinvention is an active process that empowers individuals to embrace change, expand their beliefs about themselves, and reshape their lives in allignment with their values, dreams, and aspirations.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am an award winning journalist, columnist, and radio broadcaster. I’ve been a successful corporate spokesperson for decades and an actor/director/producer in film, television and theatre. I started my own corporate consulting business back in the 90s called Executive Impact where we coached corporate executives on communication, presentation techniques, team building, and multi-media performance.

I developed my reinvention strategy after over a decade of corporate coaching including work with Talent Inc., Right Management, and Korn Ferry. But early on in my corporate job coaching positions, I learned that one size does not fit all. And every firm I worked with followed a set of immutable rules to job search that did not allow for the creativity and the real self-assessment required for true reinvention.

I’ve developed proprietary reinvention questionnaires and designed customized creative exercises that encourage meaningful personal examination and lead to thoughtful dialogue about who someone is and what makes them extraordinary.

I believe that the core of who we are leads back to our childhood joy and delight and that without rediscovering that, you can’t find career fulfillment as an adult. I’m not into “woo woo” or new-age psycho babble. I tell my clients the truth, advise them about how to navigate the rocky seas of job transition, and I allow for creative collaboration that empowers individuals to own their exceptional gifts and use that knowledge to create and promote their professional personal narrative.

It takes a lot more than marketable skills and a slick resume to land your dream job. As a highly emotionally aware, intuitive communication specialist, I help you discover your own truth and put together the personal marketing materials that will open the right doors and lead you to professional success.

I’ve seen my process of professional reinvention work over and over again. I keep my fees affordable. I’m selective about my clientele. If I don’t think I can help you, I will not take your money or waste your time. I offer packages as well as individual coaching opportunities. And what’s really different between me and every other job coach, I’m invested in you and your success and we are not finished until you are 100% thrilled with what we’ve created.

I’m honest about what I see and I tell it like it is. I believe that compassionate communication is more than empty compliments and ungrounded praise. At the same time, I am your greatest cheerleader (and I’m incredibly loud so you can hear me from the sidelines and the bleachers.)

People often come into the process of job transition with a great deal of fear and dread. I’m not about that. This process is fun, playful, and exploratory. It is also demanding and requires commitment from the client and the coach in order to discover the path that will lead to fulfilling each individual’s personal mission and financial goals.

Do what you love and the money will follow” is a tired trope that isn’t true in and of itself. I tell my clients, “Look into your heart, find your professional passion, and then hire a professional super star to get you the job and the money you want.”

I offer a complimentary 30 minute consultation to anyone who is serious about professional reinvention because every person is entitled to know that there is more out there, that professional success doesn’t mean giving up who you are, and that moving beyond your comfort zone is a process that is fun, fierce, and incredibly fulfilling.

My greatest joy is watching clients who come to me in a funk, unsure of what to do next, and facing crises of confidence, discover their individual super powers and harness them in order to reach their own professional aspirations, build the financial security they need, and realize that they can actually make a difference in the world.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to learn that living your life based on what other people and society think is a sure fire way to be miserable. When I graduated from the University of Michigan, I was committed to the corporate path. I had great offers and chose to work for Leo Burnett Advertising in Chicago. My friends were impressed. My parents were proud. But I knew it wasn’t a good fit. I was making plenty of money and climbing the corporate ladder. But my life revolved around things that didn’t matter at all to me like fighting for tv air time for cat food or beer, or selling my soul to create a better visibility campaign for cereal brands. And I hated playing politics!

When I left that job, I explored so many professional paths. I learned what I liked, what i didn’t like, and what I was really good at. And the funny thing was, it was so simple. By doing some of the internal work and following the threads that led back to what I loved to do as a kid, I figured out my direction. I was a creative, an actor, a writer, a producer. I spent years honing my artistic crafts. I had great success in film, theatre, television and radio broadcasting. I became a corporate spokesperson. And I loved it all.

But I had a strong business mind and had always loved being a mentor. So I started using my business and communications skills to train executives in media and presentation delivery. I was always helping friends write their resumes and query letters. Everything just came together when I became a job transition coach. I loved that and started writing resumes professionally.

But I truly found my calling when I realized that I was passionate about reinvention. As an artist, I see things differently than most of the world. Suddenly, i figured out that that was my super power. I could see things in people and put the pieces of their lives together in ways they couldn’t see for themselves.

When a lawyer learns that they hate practicing law or a project manager gets laid off, they are often in a funk and don’t know where to turn. That’s where I come in. I have them fill out a few questionnaires and from those, a pattern emerges. Then through discussion and consult, we work together to re-set their professional compass.

I want people to know that they don’t need to be unhappy in a job. I help people unlock their own potential so they can find the path that truly speaks to them. If someone is open and ready to move forward and find their professional passion, we will get there. I tell every client I work with that we are not done until they are 100% thrilled with their new direction and personal marketing platform.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I’ve given several speeches on reinvention and I’m active on LinkedIn. So I do get some clients from those venues. But the reality is my business is almost entirely referral based. I’m willing to work hard, listen well , and sometimes tell my clients some hard truths. But every client who sticks with me through the process is thrilled. Because if they aren’t, we aren’t finished. And at some point, they know someone who is stuck in job hell and they send them to me.

I also get referrals from colleagues at the large consulting firms I’ve worked with in the past.

The other thing that ensures success for my clients is that I will tell someone upfront when I don’t think I’m a good fit for them. There are some people who aren’t ready to look within and step outside their comfort zones. I totally get that and respect those people. But I wont take their money or waste their time..

Image Credits
In order: top= reinvention consultant Debra demonstrating how to “climb” outside your comfort zone Professional actor photo “A Doll’s House Part II” at Theatre Artists Studio in Phoenix, AZ 2021 Reinvention Specialist [email protected]