Nov. 3, 2025

When You Feel Out of Sync with Your PR Career - Episode 320

When You Feel Out of Sync with Your PR Career - Episode 320
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When You Feel Out of Sync with Your PR Career - Episode 320

In this episode, hosts Karen Swim, APR of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane of Voice Matters discuss self-reflection. They explore the growing feeling among communications professionals that something is missing, even if they love their work.

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That Solo Life, Episode 320: When You Feel Out of Sync with Your PR CareerEpisode Summary

In this episode, hosts Karen Swim, APR of Solo PR Pro and Michelle Kane of Voice Matters, take a moment to discuss a crucial topic for every solo practitioner: self-reflection. They explore the growing feeling among communications professionals that something is missing, even if they love their work. This conversation explores the importance of pausing to evaluate what you truly want from your career and life, particularly in an environment where everything is changing. From leaning into discomfort to the power of community, Karen and Michelle share personal insights and inspiration to help you align your business with your personal fulfillment and plan for the future from a place of strength.

Episode Highlights
  • [01:22] The challenge for solo pros to hit the pause button and focus on their own needs and business direction.
  • [02:26] A common theme in the industry: professionals feeling unfulfilled and seeking a change or a better life-work balance.
  • [03:32] Why it's natural and healthy to explore different interests within your career and the importance of scheduling time for self-reflection.
  • [04:36] How major life events and global challenges are shifting perspectives on what truly matters, prompting a re-evaluation of personal values and purpose.
  • [05:33] The power of leaning into discomfort, exploring your feelings, and finding support and inspiration from community, like women's conferences.
  • [06:21] Michelle shares key takeaways from the "Power Your Potential" women's conference, including sessions on people-pleasing and advocating for yourself.
  • [09:06] The conversation connects personal foundation to business clarity, visioning, and goal setting.
  • [10:11] Navigating economically challenging times can also be an opportunity for a more fulfilling life by leaning into a "season of less" to grow personally.
  • [12:17] How examining your life and business during tough times can help you plan from a place of strength and make better decisions.
  • [13:19] A discussion on ditching the "hustle hard" culture for a healthier, more sustainable approach to work and life.
  • [15:48] Acknowledging that your professional interests evolve, and now is a perfect time to re-examine what you love to do in the face of industry changes.
Related Episodes & Additional Information

In this episode, Michelle mentions attending the Power Your Potential Women's Conference, presented by the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Montgomery County.

Host & Show Info

That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent and small practitioners. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR, founder of Words For Hire and President of Solo PR, and Michelle Kane, Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and advice for solo PR pros navigating today’s dynamic professional landscape.


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That Solo Life, Episode 320: When You Feel Out of Sync with Your PR Career

Michelle Kane (00:12):
Thanks for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with Voice Matters, and my wonderful cohost, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hey Karen, how are you today?
Karen Swim, APR (00:27):
Hi, Michelle. It is a Monday for sure, but I, oh,
Michelle Kane (00:32):
Yeah, good. I know this Monday is Monday. I don't know if it's because sometimes our weeks bleed into the weekends or sometimes the weeks are really rough, but man, sometimes Monday mornings it's like, okay, let's do
Karen Swim, APR (00:47):
This. I completely agree with you. How are you managing your Monday? How are you feeling today?
Michelle Kane (00:51):
Well, I've already had that conversation in my head of It's okay that you weren't bright and shiny your email at 8:00 AM because you work late on Friday, and darn it, you're your own boss. So just stop. That was my conversation this morning with myself. How about you?
Karen Swim, APR (01:08):
Well, the self-talk is real, and I feel like we've all been doing a little more self-talk and our conversations are changing quite a bit.
Michelle Kane (01:18):
Indeed, indeed, they are. Yeah, and I think we say this so often, especially in our business, we're often so head down, do the work outwardly focused, that challenging to sometimes just hit the pause button for a day or so and think, Hey, what's going on with me? Where are we? Where's my business headed? And what about me? What about you? What do we really want? What might be changing in the industry that we need to address within our own business? And honestly, it's just great to check in with ourselves to figure out what do we want and need right now in this moment? So that's kind of what we want to talk about today. Just taking the time to think about what is it you want today in the next month, a few years from now, and how are you tracking to get there?
Karen Swim, APR (02:23):
I agree, and it's interesting. I've had so many conversations in recent months, and the overwhelming theme from the people that I've spoken with is they're either in this phase of feeling like something is not quite as fulfilling. Not that they want to leave communications, but something is missing, something's off, or they've gone through this process and they're on the other side of it. Really tuning more into life, dialing back on work a little bit, and finding ways to scratch that itch, so to speak, doing other things or pivoting ways. And so I think it's interesting, we of course talk about change, external changes, but we don't talk about the shift that's happening within our individual selves in this industry. And there's definitely a shift.
Michelle Kane (03:31):
Oh, absolutely. And it's natural as a human being that you're going to want to maybe explore different things even within your industry. And it's just good to acknowledge that. And I think so often, I know for me, for sure, do we take the time to do that? And I almost think sometimes that speaks back to are we putting that time on our schedule? Not that you can schedule these thoughts, but do we schedule an hour a week to just think about, okay, what's my caseload so to speak? Do I like it? If I could change things, what would that be? And that in tandem with what it's like out there, any given moment, I think is good. It's natural, it's healthy, and I think in our profession, it's all too often put aside in favor of, let me just do one more thing for X.
Karen Swim, APR (04:36):
I mean, as things keep flying at a Pandora's box and we keep going through from one horror to the other, I do, it's human nature to really begin to think differently, to have a different perspective on life, the big picture of your life and not just your career. So I'm not surprised that so many people are really starting to question what they value, what really fulfills them, what they want, their mission and purpose to be in life. I think that those are natural things that come out of having gone through tragedy and realizing the instability of life. Things don't stay the same, and sometimes they change in ways that are not comfortable, or there's loss, there's grief, and it makes you really want to make your days here count. And I love what you said about not just taking that time with yourself, but really just embracing that discomfort that you're feeling, leaning into it, and exploring it. And you did something that I also find a lot of us doing more, and I'm going to speak for women because I think that we're doing this more, is that we're leaning into being with one another with groups of women more. We're leaning into those one-on-one conversations. And I think that that's equally important of being with people that share a perspective that can sort of light the way. And you went to this women's conference and you heard some great things that sort of reenergized you.
Michelle Kane (06:20):
I did. I did. I went to the Power Your Potential Women's Conference, and it was presented by the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Montgomery County. And it was tremendous. I would say there had to be easily 300-ish women there, a couple of guys, which a panelist called They're the Righteous Brothers, which I thought was fabulous. And it was great. We came from all different backgrounds, all different industries, and they had a couple of great breakout sessions, and hopefully, we can get some of these people as guests in the future. They were phenomenal. One was on people pleasing or how not to, which crosses that blur. It's not just your personal stuff, it's over-giving with your services, under-pricing. And then there was another breakout on your communication and leadership styles, which definitely hit on a lot of salient points for me. One definitely is you don't advocate for yourself enough. You can be just putting your head down and doing the work, but it isn't going to do it. Whether you're working within a company or running a company, you need to tell your story as much as you're telling the stories of others. And so yeah, there were so many great messages that came out of that. They had a wonderful panel with the CEO of Rita's water, ice, or as we say around here, water, ice.
(07:49):
A woman who built her own cleaning company, we also heard from the executive director of the Eagles Autism Foundation, which was, she was incredible. She was another one who, it wasn't like her talk was a lot about just really thinking of how can we move this forward? How can we do things better? And so many of the achievements just came out of conversations, and it wasn't like a rigid, we will do this. It was, oh, hey, yeah, I met this person. And they said, what would you do if you had the empty storefront? Oh, we're going to do a popcorn factory for autistic people so they can have jobs. And just super inspiring along the way. And it doesn't matter that you or I will never be the head of a major foundation with an NFL team, but these are all nuggets that we can take away. And I have to say, previously I would've talked myself out of it, saying like, no, no, no, I need to get X, Y, Z done. Well, do you need to get that done today or can that shift to next week? And no one's going to notice. And I think the bottom line is hearing from each other, the chance conversations in the hallways. They all do matter.
Karen Swim, APR (09:06):
And I know it may seem weird for a PR podcast to talk about this topic, but it really isn't, because it takes getting your foundation. And we are our foundation to really have clarity around your business and to really talk about visioning and setting your goals. And I was speaking with a friend this morning. We met at the park, and she is in a totally different industry, but her business, like everyone's, has taken a downturn, and then she had an injury. So she really had to step away. And she said, financially, not in the place that I was, but it kind of took all of these things for me to take a step and reflect and realize I didn't want back what I had. I didn't want to work 40 to 80 hours a week. I don't want to do that anymore. And there are some ways that I can cut back.
(09:59):
And she said something that I just keep hearing over and over and over again from different people in different professions, many of them in PR that this year has been economically challenging, but if you take a step and look at the bigger picture, it's also been more fulfilling. And so I think for all of us, as we head into probably what will be another challenging year, it's really important. If you're feeling sort of off, it may not be because business is bad, maybe it's because business was not what you wanted it to be, or that you needed it to be. So take a little time to evaluate that too, because sometimes it means, you know what? I'm going to lean into the season of less, but I'm going to do more of these things that actually fulfill me, things that satisfy me, things that grow me and develop me. And that makes me feel like I'm facing each day with something that makes me excited.
Michelle Kane (11:00):
Yeah, that's so true. I mean, even when it's scary and it doesn't feel like there's much hope, those moments still teach us things. We hate it in the moment. Hate it. Because who wants to be scared and freaked out? But I think too, that the whole pandemic era and the years following, I feel like that is all teaching us, right? Because in the heat of that moment, we were just like, okay, how do I survive from one month to the next? And it feels like, given all the exterior factors that change daily, even within that, we're all coming into a newness. And within that is the ability to say, well, okay, in the current landscape, what does this look like for me? And you do realize, well, how do I want to spend my days now that I can actually take a beat and think about that? And I think it's important work that we need to do for ourselves.
Karen Swim, APR (12:05):
I mean, I agree, especially in these times, use this time that you've been forced to maybe cut back on working so hard to really examine your entire life. Because when you're clear on what maybe felt off and doing with a little less learning to live with a little less things, learning to cut some of the expenses, and really examining, like, huh, I have a lot of bloat in places and I can get rid of those things. But then, also thinking about what's ahead, then you can really plan from a place of strength. And when you are in a place of strength, you make better decisions about your business, you make better decisions about who you want to target and who you really want to spend your days with. And I think that that is as important as the money that's coming in, because you could just be making money. But if it's not fun, if it's not fulfilling, if it's draining your life, I think that we all have gotten it. We get the message: life is short. No matter how long your life is, it's never going to feel long enough. And here in America, unfortunately, that hustle hard and everybody wants to be a billionaire, a multimillionaire, chasing after the dollar and never taking off work and treating it like a badge of honor. I was on vacation and I worked 40 hours. We are ditching that culture,
(13:40):
Thankfully, because I don't think that was healthy. But yeah, I think this is the nugget that we can find in the worst of times. And there's always something to be learned in the worst of times. It's the worst of times, not the end of the worst of times, but the continuation of the work. So we've got to look for those lessons and those things that are going to strengthen us and that ultimately will give us joy. But the process as somebody who has been going through it, and I promise you I've been going through it, so I'm not speaking from a place of like, oh, I read about that. No, I've lived this. It's not always fun, but
Michelle Kane (14:28):
No, no, I've been there too. And you could feel like you're in a free fall and in a tailspin, and you're just trying to grasp it at the walls and hang on. And the beauty of that is on the other side, you're like, huh, I got through that. And I want to say too, I think there's power in all of us taking that step forward of saying like, I'm not going to be on my vacation. No, because I think too, the more that we actually focus on what makes a billionaire,
(15:03):
Most of us don't have that vast generational wealth that pops you up there. Yes. Do we have self-made people who do very well? Absolutely. But let's face it, for most of us, if we're lucky to live what we consider a comfortable life, that's great. And it's not easy to spend that time with yourself and figure out, well, what do I want? I know if I ask myself, I'll be like, I'm not sure. I don't know. But I always come back to this no matter what I'm doing. People will say, well, what do you want to do? I'm like, I want to do good work with good people.
Karen Swim, APR (15:40):
Yeah, that's it. Yeah. And realize that I think that that's probably true for most of us. But on another level, realize that we change as people. So what you like to do is naturally going to evolve. So the things that you love doing five years ago, you may not love doing today. And that's okay. I mean, this is a perfect time to reexamine that because change is happening in our industry. So why not really take a hard look at, I know that our profession is being impacted. I know that things are changing. I know that some things may even go away. What are the things I really love to do? How do I love to do them? And what will that look like in two years, three years, five years, 10 years even? Because there may be things that you love today that really may not exist in five years.
Michelle Kane (16:39):
Exactly. Exactly. So spend some time with yourself. It's all good. And yeah, just jot down the ideas as they come to you. Well, we hope that we've been a little uplifting today and inspiring. If so, please share this episode around we would really appreciate that. We want to grow this podcast for sure. Head us up with solo pr pro.com. Let us know what have you been working on lately? What's been inspiring you, because we would love to share it here. And until next time, thanks for listening to that life.

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