We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cathy Lanzalaco. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cathy below.

Hi Cathy, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

As a career coach and former HR leader, I have helped thousands of executives advance in their careers. I love the work. I bring 30 years of corporate experience to each engagement, and that, combined with my expertise in today’s job search landscape, I help executives create more powerful and fulfilling futures.

Over the past year, however, I began to notice a trend. More and more of the executive women I was coaching were single parents. Whether by choice or as a result of life circumstances, their experiences as single parents were critical in shaping their career journeys.

As I worked with these women and heard their stories, I began to share more of my own personal story and it resonated with them and inspired them.

As a single parent for the past 23 years, I have worked hard to create the career and business I have now without co-parenting support and with little consideration for my situation in the workplace. For many years, I endured overt bias in the workplace along with pervasive microaggressions about my parenthood status that sought to shame and control me as it related to my work performance and career. I know many of these women I serve now do as well.

Without a spouse at home or a second income as a cushion, I often had to work twice as hard, sacrifice more, and live up to a world designed for two-parent families. Often times it was grueling, but I did it, as these brilliant executive women are doing now.

No one talks openly about the challenges executive single women face, the demands placed on them, and often the penalties to their careers that result. General issues of parental leave are addressed as part of workplace compliance and occasionally parent-friendly policies are implemented; however, their overall experience is largely overlooked or ignored. I have created a coaching framework and community where they can feel seen, appreciated, and supported in ways that validate their experience and talent.

My mission is to give these women the support I never had, and the resources, coaching, and tools that they may not be receiving in the workplace and help them achieve more of whatever success looks like to them.

So, with a renewed sense of purpose, in 2023 I began focusing on becoming the solution they may not have even realized they needed. I provide strategies, insights, and tools that empower them to successfully navigate the path ahead and reach their full professional potential.

Cathy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am Cathy Lanzalaco, CEO of Inspire Careers LLC, Western New York’s #1 career marketing firm serving job seekers and career transitioners across the country.

A three-time career changer with 15 years of human resources leadership, I provide insights and strategies that help my clients land jobs and create careers they love in less time than going it alone.

I began my professional career as a registered nurse, working for 15 years at a Buffalo hospital, eventually moving into medical case management for an independent review company and then for a regional grocer. That led to an opportunity to join the corporate human resources team (with no previous human resources experience) and which turned into a 15-year career in human resources. Going back to school I obtained an MBA and HR certifications and enjoyed a fulfilling career in HR until the business I supported closed in 2016.

Helping 600 people transition into new careers led me to the next step of my career. In 2017 I founded Write-Résumé-For-the-Job and in 2018 purchased Inspire Careers and now serve executives and career-minded professionals under the Inspire Careers banner, specializing in career strategies for single-parent executives.

The thread that ties all of my professional experiences together is caring and advocating for people: as a nurse for patients, as an HR leader for employees, and as a career coach for my clients. My HR background allows me to provide my clients with a perspective “from the other side of the desk” to help them overcome the white noise of a saturated job market and accelerate the outcomes of their job search.

Inspired by the lack of preparation for new college graduates entering the job market, I created the only new college graduate success program in the country, The Inspire Careers Student Professional Launch Program™. This 100% success-guaranteed program helps new graduates from some of the leading colleges and universities across the country launch into new careers they love, setting them up for long-term professional success.

A respected voice in the career management community, I am a three-time award-winning résumé writer, a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, a board member of the National Résumé Writers’ Association, and the In-Transition Chair for the Buffalo Niagara Human Resources Association Board of Directors. An expert blogger for Career Directors International, I am a frequently requested podcast, radio, and television guest, speaking about progressive and differentiating career strategies.

I provide services ranging from career clarity coaching, résumé transformation, LinkedIn makeover, LinkedIn training, and job search strategy coaching, to keynote speaking, and other customized solutions. I genuinely care about my clients’ success and that comes through in everything I do with and for my clients.

In 2023, my speaking engagements include the Professional Association of Résumé Writers and Career Coaches annual conference in Orlando, FL, the National Nurses in Business Association annual conference in Las Vegas, and the first hybrid-format conference for the National Résumé Writers’ Association in Colorado Springs, CO. I am also the featured speaker for numerous virtual events for a diverse group of professional organizations throughout the year.

2023 has also been exciting as I begin to expand my support to single-parent executive women through the LÎft Executive Coaching Program.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

I started my first resume writing/career coaching business, Write-Resume-For-The-Job in 2017. While building that business, I did subcontracting work for the original owner of Inspire Careers. Sadly, she passed away in 2018. prior to her passing, we had conversations about me purchasing her business in the future to continue her legacy. Several months after she passed away, I met with her husband and we hammered out the details about the purchase price and the business IP I would be purchasing.

I applied for a business loan to purchase the business and it was denied because I was still a novice business owner. To pay for the business, I took a withdrawal from my IRA. It was a tough decision, but I did it. Smart move too; I made the money back in less than a year and have grown the revenue YOY since then.

I bought the business to immediately infuse my existing business with name recognition, connections, legacy clients, and a library of IP, and that was perhaps, the most inspired (yes, pun intended) business move I made. Because of that, I rebranded my existing business under the Inspire Careers name and never looked back.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

My career journey has been paved with constant pivots. As a registered nurse, I pivoted into a career in human resources because I saw the potential for greater long-term salary earnings and a career that allowed me to be home in the evenings and on the weekends with my children. As a single parent, these factors were big motivators for me.

When the business I supported as an HR leader closed, I knew I decided to reinvent myself again. I thrive on new challenges and wanted to control my own destiny. I took a few short-term HR jobs to pay the bills and started my first resume writing business in 2017 – Write-Resume-For-The-Job and bought my current business, Inspire Careers in 2018.

What I did not realize as I passed through each of these iterations of my career, was that I was building a career story that would inspire my clients to go after what they wanted. I walked the walk. That is uplifting to my clients. They know I have experienced many of the same challenges they have and have come out on the other end to help and support them in their journeys.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.inspirecareers.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspirecareers/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inspirecareers
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/cathylanzalaco
• Twitter: @CathyLanzalaco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@inspirecareers8761

Image Credits
Professional headshot and picture of me at desk taken by Dana Goodemote of Adore Studio