Quote: “I thought it would be interesting to start back at the beginning when I first started working, and what I learned from each job that has helped me.” Jane Atkinson
Have you ever looked at how you got to where you are today? I mean, a really in-depth look at the incredible journey that has brought you to this moment in time. On this episode of The Wealthy Speaker Show, I am going to indulge myself a little and share with you my journey from my very first job all the way through to where I am today and the career lessons that I learned along the way.
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Jane Atkinson: Hey, everybody! Welcome to the wealthy speaker, Podcast! Today we're really talking about the learning journey.
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Jane Atkinson: and
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Jane Atkinson: it's gonna be maybe a little bit of a vanity podcast, call it what it is right, or maybe something for posterity.
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Jane Atkinson: I wanted to just kind of go back through my history and figure out how I got here, and so I
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Jane Atkinson: put a few things down on paper. If you're watching this on Youtube, you're gonna see here, kind of like no makeup, no jewelry just like here, and
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Jane Atkinson: so I thought it would be interesting to just kind of start all the way back at the beginning. When I first started getting jobs and what I learned
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Jane Atkinson: from each job that has really helped me
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Jane Atkinson: today. I really didn't even recognize all of the things that helped me. My very first job
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Jane Atkinson: was in the Mall at Orange, Julius making hot dogs and orange Julius's
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Jane Atkinson: and I got, I don't know, fired or laid off, and I never understood why.
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Jane Atkinson: And so I, of course, okay, suffered my first kind of disappointment, because I had never, really, that had never happened to me before, of course, but I think the lesson was when one door opens
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Jane Atkinson: when one door closes, a window opens because I ended up getting a job at the grocery store. No frills
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Jane Atkinson: for those of you in Canada, you know. No.
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Jane Atkinson: quite a large chain. It's Basically, a no-frills grocery store
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Jane Atkinson: ended up working there all the way through high school and college, and became the trainer and guess what was introduced. What I was training on at 1 point was barcode readers like there was.
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Jane Atkinson: We were punching in numbers a dollar 79 Enter, you know, a dollar 79 grocery, a dollar 79 bro produce like we were really really old school when I first started. So that's how all that i'm 58 years old. So that that dates me a little bit.
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Jane Atkinson: But the idea that I could have this amazing start to my career and I excelled at it. I was the fastest cashier, so they always put me on the quick check out, you know one to 10 items, or whatever fast cash.
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Jane Atkinson: and I I just learned a lot from my 6 years there, and I learned what it was to build something and build on something. So all the way through college I kept that job
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Jane Atkinson: now. College. Guess what I was trained for.
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Jane Atkinson: you know, for gas.
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Jane Atkinson: I was trained to be a computer programmer.
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Jane Atkinson: and the first day our former military captain teacher.
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Jane Atkinson: Professor, said: 30 of you are not going to make it. And he was right. 30% of the people did not make it.
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Jane Atkinson: and even though I learned about halfway through, I was not going to be
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Jane Atkinson: a computer programmer back then we were dealing in the languages of Fortran
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Jane Atkinson: and co-ball and basic and gigantic mainframes and a job in computer programming either meant that you were writing code all day, or you were sitting and monitoring a giant mainframe in a room all by yourself, which none of which appealed to me
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Jane Atkinson: but what I learned from it.
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Jane Atkinson: Number One was perseverance, because I stuck that program out despite wanting to quit many, many times, and that was probably the first time I ever to check anything out.
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Jane Atkinson: So i'll learn. I learned perseverance, but I also learned logic. You know it's easy for me now
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Jane Atkinson: to think in a flow charge. If this happens, then i'm going to do this. If this doesn't happen, then i'm going to do this like a you. You you learn a lot of logic
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Jane Atkinson: as a computer program. You are just dealing in ones and zeros. And so
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it really helped me. So also interesting note. My brother, who has since passed away.
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Jane Atkinson: It said to me.
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Jane Atkinson: You know, Jane, I think this computer thing might be something. Maybe you should learn something about it.
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Jane Atkinson: Well, that was the best advice my brother could have ever given to me. He was kind of my guy.
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Jane Atkinson: and he passed away when he was 53, so I I miss him as my guide, and i'll tell you what of all the guidance he ever gave me.
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Jane Atkinson: I would say this computer thing might be big.
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Jane Atkinson: It was pretty
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Jane Atkinson: prophetic at a a prophetic, he he, he really called it. And yes, the computer thing was big and yes, I've always had a confidence and a comfortable
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Jane Atkinson: kind of feeling about computers. They've never intimidated me, intimidating me as a result of it. And I can really logic my way through things as a result of that training.
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Jane Atkinson: So while I was
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Jane Atkinson: in college, I still had
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Jane Atkinson: the no job, the no frills job. But then I quit, and I was out into the world.
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Jane Atkinson: I never want it to be a computer programmer, but I I figured out early on the temp agencies
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Jane Atkinson: could get me placed in a lot of really interesting jobs. So if you all have someone in your life who you're thinking, you know. Get out there and get a job. Tell them to go work for a temp and see because you get to experience
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Jane Atkinson: incredible things. I really started to understand business because of my temp agency work. So my first one out of college.
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Jane Atkinson: Excuse me.
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Jane Atkinson: I always had a day job, Temp Agency and a night job waitressing. I'll tell you about that in a second. My first job was in a big 6 accounting firm in Halifax.
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Jane Atkinson: and
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Jane Atkinson: whoa! That was an eye-opener. I was the receptionist, and as the receptionist in any position
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Jane Atkinson: you really get the lay of the land. You really start to understand what's going on in this company
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Jane Atkinson: and boy the kids who were coming up through and trying to become accountants.
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Jane Atkinson: What I recognized was
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Jane Atkinson: they really had to work their butts off to actually get and achieve that job.
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Jane Atkinson: and I had major major respect for them. So I did a big 6 accounting for
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Jane Atkinson: back. Then it was called to Schrodinger and Company. Good morning to trust me Company
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Jane Atkinson: still do that in my sleep I still wake up sometimes putting things down the cat. You know my my grocery store job
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Jane Atkinson: putting things down the conveyor belt and worrying that i'm getting behind. You know that's still a reoccurring nightmare even to this day. Here I am
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Jane Atkinson: 40 years later
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Jane Atkinson: Now the second job that I had out of college was with Canadian airlines.
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Jane Atkinson: and I was the receptionist again, and I learned
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Jane Atkinson: how insanely hard it is to become a flight attendant like that. Training is so intense because of all of the safety. And so that was a pretty big eye opener for me as well another temp job that I had this time
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Jane Atkinson: I was about 25, and I traveled over to Australia and New Zealand the whole South Pacific for a year.
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Jane Atkinson: and I landed in Australia, and my friendly and I both got jobs
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Jane Atkinson: working in a grocery store called Will. Worse
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Jane Atkinson: is Sydney.
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Jane Atkinson: and I have to tell you the people there were so mean.
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Jane Atkinson: I lasted 2 days. Lee lasted years. They paid really good.
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Jane Atkinson: but there was no
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Jane Atkinson: I don't know if they were really behind on their customer service, training, or what?
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Jane Atkinson: But the the the cashiers were all mean to the customers, and they were even mean to us the newbies. And so I I last to 2 days at that, and I went got this job at covert car alarms.
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Jane Atkinson: and they ended up bringing me back again and again and again, and had I wanted to, I was again the receptionist, but I moved around and moved into different departments because they really liked me.
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Jane Atkinson: and had I wanted to stay in Australia I could have done it through cover. They they thought that I was a German, that they should keep me. And again.
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Jane Atkinson: the reason why I went up through the ranks so quickly is because I was just nice to people they didn't understand customer service. It was really
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Jane Atkinson: when when I went into the Service Department and did a stint there.
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Jane Atkinson: the girl from New Zealand who worked there. Sandra trained me.
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Jane Atkinson: I taught her like, you know you don't have to be so mean to people right like she was. So
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Jane Atkinson: I don't know. So anyway, back when I was 25 years old, I learned that customer service isn't always a given
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Jane Atkinson: So You know how I've always had like the 2 jobs. So the very first waitressing job
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Jane Atkinson: I went to work at the penalty box pub in Halifax. It was right next door to the big
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Jane Atkinson: center where they play professional hockey.
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Jane Atkinson: and
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Jane Atkinson: my friend Vivian man seen. He took me under her way. She was a few years older than me, maybe 5 years older than me.
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Jane Atkinson: and well, I can't even tell you we're still friends today. 40 years later I can't even tell you what an impact Vivian had on my life
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Jane Atkinson: because she taught me, and I don't know why I was missing this.
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Jane Atkinson: but she really helped me learn highness and compassion.
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Jane Atkinson: She was so kind to people. At the same time she was a little bit rough around the edges. If a man tried to hit on her, she often would put him in her his place quite quickly.
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Jane Atkinson: But the penalty box was really an amazing time. Not only did I learn how to be a waitress, but and and I still to this day
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Jane Atkinson: cannot go to the bank and withdraw cash.
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Jane Atkinson: because I was so used to for 15 years of my life.
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Jane Atkinson: having tips in my pocket.
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Jane Atkinson: I never ever went to the bank to take out cash, and so today, now i'm on to the debit card, and I just put everything on the card.
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Jane Atkinson: but I think it's interesting that you know becoming a waitress at 1 point in your time will will
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Jane Atkinson: create some sort of cash havoc in your life because I I still can't go to the bank.
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I did end up.
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Jane Atkinson: I I basically
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Jane Atkinson: decided where I want it to work and just went and got a job. So I've worked at a lot of pubs here in London, Ontario, my hometown. I worked out in Calgary at a lot of places. There was one job I got
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Jane Atkinson: because I heard the name of the bar on the radio silver bullet sports bar in blah blah blah Calgary.
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Jane Atkinson: and I just heard it on a radio commercial. And that's I said to my brother, i'm gonna go get the job at that silver bullet sports bar.
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Jane Atkinson: Unfortunately, that was one of the negative experiences that I had as a server, because I learned
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Jane Atkinson: kind of a little bit about sexual harassment. We had a manager there, who, I think, liked his cocaine, and he would hit on all the girls, and I remember leaving in tears. I don't remember exactly what he did to me, but
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Jane Atkinson: it wasn't anything physical. It was just when I said no to him.
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Jane Atkinson: He made my life miserable, I think, was how it went. That was my first experience, had no words, for it had no framework for what was going on, but that was actually sexual harassment in the workplace, which I didn't know about at that time.
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Jane Atkinson: So I've been learning things and evolving as a human as I go
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Jane Atkinson: the best I have to say, Temp job that I ever had was through 3 M.
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Jane Atkinson: So 3 am. You know they make posted notes. They make everything.
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Jane Atkinson: and I worked in that department where they worked. They were where they made a post it notes.
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Jane Atkinson: and they always want it to keep me. So I was able to do like I would go in and do a maternity leave, so that might have been a 6 month or a year long project here in Canada. By the way.
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Jane Atkinson: our
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Jane Atkinson: new moms or dads can take up to a year and a half off for maternity or paternity leave it's really
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Jane Atkinson: incredible how
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Jane Atkinson: the support that new moms get, and my step, daughter. Katie
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Jane Atkinson: just had her third child.
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Jane Atkinson: and took a year and a half. It's hard hard getting back to work after that, with a little one with 2 little ones at home.
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Jane Atkinson: So
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Jane Atkinson: here I am, working at 3 M. On my maybe third contract
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Jane Atkinson: and the Home Products Department. They were so nice to me, and I had amazing.
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Jane Atkinson: amazing bosses all throughout. It meant a lot of really cool people.
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Jane Atkinson: but this was the power of manifesting once again kicked in. So I you! You might have heard me tell the story of
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Jane Atkinson: the less Brown Pbs special that I saw.
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Jane Atkinson: I watched this live. Your dream Special recorded it on Vhs and watched it again and again and again.
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And that was the first time I was really exposed to
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Jane Atkinson: a motivational speaker.
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Jane Atkinson: and then they started to bring them through at 3 M. So I had a little bit of exposure there. But I said to myself, oh.
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Jane Atkinson: that's what I want to do after I leave 3. Am I want to go work for a motivational speaker.
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Jane Atkinson: And so I was telling Brenda, who worked alongside me at at 3 am. She was an executive there.
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Jane Atkinson: that that was my goal, and she said, oh, my gosh! My best friend! Best get just the left 3 M. She was an executive.
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Jane Atkinson: and she just went and wrote a book about leadership. And now she's become a motivational speaker. You should talk to her.
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Jane Atkinson: and within a matter of weeks I had my first job as an agent for
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Jane Atkinson: a motivational speaker.
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Jane Atkinson: so
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Jane Atkinson: that you know now and and now I enter into a 30 year
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30 plus here
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Jane Atkinson: in the speaking industry, 30 plus years in the speaking industry. First half was as an agent.
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Jane Atkinson: second half was as a coach.
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Jane Atkinson: and I just to tell you
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Jane Atkinson: total life, Changer.
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Jane Atkinson: I have gone on to manifest all of the things that I would have wanted in my life. But all of the things i'm so so grateful for, and have basically learned to build the life of my dreams
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Jane Atkinson: through the people that I met along the way. Now, one job that I didn't actually the few jobs that I didn't mention of, of of note interesting.
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Jane Atkinson: I worked at a Sunshine village ski resort out in Banff, Canada. I was the assistant to the Vice President of Marketing, as well as I did a couple of since there
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Jane Atkinson: Dave, or when one of the crazy connects. He was also a vice president of marketing and operations, and so I did. Several stints out. There lived up on the top of the hill like I took a gondola up the gondol. Look closed at night, and you couldn't get down the hell unless you' out
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Jane Atkinson: on my lunch hour
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Jane Atkinson: went and got lost in a snowstorm at the top of the hill. Like it was incredible. And here's my lesson from from sunshine.
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Jane Atkinson: Don't wait for all the conditions to be right to take advantage of what's right in front of you. So I would wait for the sun to be out and the snow to be great, and not too many tourists around
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Jane Atkinson: to go out skiing. I should be a far, far, far better skier and more advanced than I am, because I didn't take advantage as much as I should have of the skiing.
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Jane Atkinson: So that was an interesting lesson, and a couple of other just kind of cool jobs I worked on a cruise ship when I was in Australia. That's why Cobra car alarms kept hiring me back after my old jobs. I worked on a cruise ship
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Jane Atkinson: and went on a couple of tours with them as a drinks. Hostess
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Jane Atkinson: got off of the cruise ship, went up the coast to the Great Barrier Reef to cans.
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Jane Atkinson: and got a job as a deck hand
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Jane Atkinson: on a fishing trawler.
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Jane Atkinson: It sounds like the cool is because
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Jane Atkinson: we would trawl all night long and then drop everything in the net in front of us. And basically i'm seeing the great barrier reef on my tray. And then i'm scooping things over the side that we don't want. We were there to fish for prawns.
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Jane Atkinson: and if it wasn't a prawn, it went over the side.
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Jane Atkinson: and then all the dolphins would come and eat the bronze or eat the stuff. We scooped over the side, so there would be dolphins, and then, if they left you'd look down further, and you'd see sharks.
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Jane Atkinson: So it was quite insane that I went from working on a cruise ship where the drinks stewardesses. I think we
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Jane Atkinson: we were called. We got served our our meals from other people who worked on the ship. I went from that to being kind of hampered and catered to
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Jane Atkinson: over to working on a fishing trawler, where I
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Jane Atkinson: smell like fish. For several weeks of my life
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Jane Atkinson: a lot has been learned along the way over these 58 years.
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Jane Atkinson: and i'll apologize if I've been a a little
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Jane Atkinson: like I said, this is a vanity piece. I really wanted to document this someday i'm hoping my kids or grandkids will pull it up and think. Oh, I did not know. Gmon did all those things.
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Jane Atkinson: anyway. I I learned so many things along the way, and I think that that's what life is all about. And if you're not figuring out what the lesson is from all the hard knocks that you take.
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Jane Atkinson: and all the things that you have in your life that are good.
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You're missing about.
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Jane Atkinson: So thank you for indulging my vanity today, and i'll see you. Some wealthy speakers.
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Jane Atkinson: Hey, everybody! Welcome to the wealthy speaker, Podcast! Today we're really talking about the learning journey.
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Jane Atkinson: and
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Jane Atkinson: it's gonna be maybe a little bit of a vanity podcast, call it what it is right, or maybe something for posterity.
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Jane Atkinson: I wanted to just kind of go back through my history and figure out how I got here, and so I
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Jane Atkinson: put a few things down on paper. If you're watching this on Youtube, you're gonna see here, kind of like no makeup, no jewelry just like here, and
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Jane Atkinson: so I thought it would be interesting to just kind of start all the way back at the beginning. When I first started getting jobs and what I learned
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Jane Atkinson: from each job that has really helped me
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Jane Atkinson: today. I really didn't even recognize all of the things that helped me. My very first job
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Jane Atkinson: was in the Mall at Orange, Julius making hot dogs and orange Julius's
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Jane Atkinson: and I got, I don't know, fired or laid off, and I never understood why.
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Jane Atkinson: And so I, of course, okay, suffered my first kind of disappointment, because I had never, really, that had never happened to me before, of course, but I think the lesson was when one door opens
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Jane Atkinson: when one door closes, a window opens because I ended up getting a job at the grocery store. No frills
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Jane Atkinson: for those of you in Canada, you know. No.
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Jane Atkinson: quite a large chain. It's Basically, a no-frills grocery store
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Jane Atkinson: ended up working there all the way through high school and college, and became the trainer and guess what was introduced. What I was training on at 1 point was barcode readers like there was.
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Jane Atkinson: We were punching in numbers a dollar 79 Enter, you know, a dollar 79 grocery, a dollar 79 bro produce like we were really really old school when I first started. So that's how all that i'm 58 years old. So that that dates me a little bit.
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Jane Atkinson: But the idea that I could have this amazing start to my career and I excelled at it. I was the fastest cashier, so they always put me on the quick check out, you know one to 10 items, or whatever fast cash.
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Jane Atkinson: and I I just learned a lot from my 6 years there, and I learned what it was to build something and build on something. So all the way through college I kept that job
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Jane Atkinson: now. College. Guess what I was trained for.
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Jane Atkinson: you know, for gas.
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Jane Atkinson: I was trained to be a computer programmer.
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Jane Atkinson: and the first day our former military captain teacher.
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Jane Atkinson: Professor, said: 30 of you are not going to make it. And he was right. 30% of the people did not make it.
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Jane Atkinson: and even though I learned about halfway through, I was not going to be
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Jane Atkinson: a computer programmer back then we were dealing in the languages of Fortran
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Jane Atkinson: and co-ball and basic and gigantic mainframes and a job in computer programming either meant that you were writing code all day, or you were sitting and monitoring a giant mainframe in a room all by yourself, which none of which appealed to me
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Jane Atkinson: but what I learned from it.
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Jane Atkinson: Number One was perseverance, because I stuck that program out despite wanting to quit many, many times, and that was probably the first time I ever to check anything out.
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Jane Atkinson: So i'll learn. I learned perseverance, but I also learned logic. You know it's easy for me now
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Jane Atkinson: to think in a flow charge. If this happens, then i'm going to do this. If this doesn't happen, then i'm going to do this like a you. You you learn a lot of logic
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Jane Atkinson: as a computer program. You are just dealing in ones and zeros. And so
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it really helped me. So also interesting note. My brother, who has since passed away.
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Jane Atkinson: It said to me.
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Jane Atkinson: You know, Jane, I think this computer thing might be something. Maybe you should learn something about it.
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Jane Atkinson: Well, that was the best advice my brother could have ever given to me. He was kind of my guy.
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Jane Atkinson: and he passed away when he was 53, so I I miss him as my guide, and i'll tell you what of all the guidance he ever gave me.
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Jane Atkinson: I would say this computer thing might be big.
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Jane Atkinson: It was pretty
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Jane Atkinson: prophetic at a a prophetic, he he, he really called it. And yes, the computer thing was big and yes, I've always had a confidence and a comfortable
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Jane Atkinson: kind of feeling about computers. They've never intimidated me, intimidating me as a result of it. And I can really logic my way through things as a result of that training.
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Jane Atkinson: So while I was
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Jane Atkinson: in college, I still had
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Jane Atkinson: the no job, the no frills job. But then I quit, and I was out into the world.
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Jane Atkinson: I never want it to be a computer programmer, but I I figured out early on the temp agencies
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Jane Atkinson: could get me placed in a lot of really interesting jobs. So if you all have someone in your life who you're thinking, you know. Get out there and get a job. Tell them to go work for a temp and see because you get to experience
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Jane Atkinson: incredible things. I really started to understand business because of my temp agency work. So my first one out of college.
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Jane Atkinson: Excuse me.
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Jane Atkinson: I always had a day job, Temp Agency and a night job waitressing. I'll tell you about that in a second. My first job was in a big 6 accounting firm in Halifax.
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Jane Atkinson: and
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Jane Atkinson: whoa! That was an eye-opener. I was the receptionist, and as the receptionist in any position
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Jane Atkinson: you really get the lay of the land. You really start to understand what's going on in this company
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Jane Atkinson: and boy the kids who were coming up through and trying to become accountants.
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Jane Atkinson: What I recognized was
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Jane Atkinson: they really had to work their butts off to actually get and achieve that job.
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Jane Atkinson: and I had major major respect for them. So I did a big 6 accounting for
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Jane Atkinson: back. Then it was called to Schrodinger and Company. Good morning to trust me Company
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Jane Atkinson: still do that in my sleep I still wake up sometimes putting things down the cat. You know my my grocery store job
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Jane Atkinson: putting things down the conveyor belt and worrying that i'm getting behind. You know that's still a reoccurring nightmare even to this day. Here I am
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Jane Atkinson: 40 years later
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Jane Atkinson: Now the second job that I had out of college was with Canadian airlines.
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Jane Atkinson: and I was the receptionist again, and I learned
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Jane Atkinson: how insanely hard it is to become a flight attendant like that. Training is so intense because of all of the safety. And so that was a pretty big eye opener for me as well another temp job that I had this time
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Jane Atkinson: I was about 25, and I traveled over to Australia and New Zealand the whole South Pacific for a year.
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Jane Atkinson: and I landed in Australia, and my friendly and I both got jobs
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Jane Atkinson: working in a grocery store called Will. Worse
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Jane Atkinson: is Sydney.
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Jane Atkinson: and I have to tell you the people there were so mean.
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Jane Atkinson: I lasted 2 days. Lee lasted years. They paid really good.
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Jane Atkinson: but there was no
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Jane Atkinson: I don't know if they were really behind on their customer service, training, or what?
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Jane Atkinson: But the the the cashiers were all mean to the customers, and they were even mean to us the newbies. And so I I last to 2 days at that, and I went got this job at covert car alarms.
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Jane Atkinson: and they ended up bringing me back again and again and again, and had I wanted to, I was again the receptionist, but I moved around and moved into different departments because they really liked me.
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Jane Atkinson: and had I wanted to stay in Australia I could have done it through cover. They they thought that I was a German, that they should keep me. And again.
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Jane Atkinson: the reason why I went up through the ranks so quickly is because I was just nice to people they didn't understand customer service. It was really
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Jane Atkinson: when when I went into the Service Department and did a stint there.
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Jane Atkinson: the girl from New Zealand who worked there. Sandra trained me.
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Jane Atkinson: I taught her like, you know you don't have to be so mean to people right like she was. So
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Jane Atkinson: I don't know. So anyway, back when I was 25 years old, I learned that customer service isn't always a given
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Jane Atkinson: So You know how I've always had like the 2 jobs. So the very first waitressing job
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Jane Atkinson: I went to work at the penalty box pub in Halifax. It was right next door to the big
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Jane Atkinson: center where they play professional hockey.
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Jane Atkinson: and
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Jane Atkinson: my friend Vivian man seen. He took me under her way. She was a few years older than me, maybe 5 years older than me.
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Jane Atkinson: and well, I can't even tell you we're still friends today. 40 years later I can't even tell you what an impact Vivian had on my life
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Jane Atkinson: because she taught me, and I don't know why I was missing this.
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Jane Atkinson: but she really helped me learn highness and compassion.
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Jane Atkinson: She was so kind to people. At the same time she was a little bit rough around the edges. If a man tried to hit on her, she often would put him in her his place quite quickly.
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Jane Atkinson: But the penalty box was really an amazing time. Not only did I learn how to be a waitress, but and and I still to this day
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Jane Atkinson: cannot go to the bank and withdraw cash.
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Jane Atkinson: because I was so used to for 15 years of my life.
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Jane Atkinson: having tips in my pocket.
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Jane Atkinson: I never ever went to the bank to take out cash, and so today, now i'm on to the debit card, and I just put everything on the card.
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Jane Atkinson: but I think it's interesting that you know becoming a waitress at 1 point in your time will will
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Jane Atkinson: create some sort of cash havoc in your life because I I still can't go to the bank.
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I did end up.
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Jane Atkinson: I I basically
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Jane Atkinson: decided where I want it to work and just went and got a job. So I've worked at a lot of pubs here in London, Ontario, my hometown. I worked out in Calgary at a lot of places. There was one job I got
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Jane Atkinson: because I heard the name of the bar on the radio silver bullet sports bar in blah blah blah Calgary.
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Jane Atkinson: and I just heard it on a radio commercial. And that's I said to my brother, i'm gonna go get the job at that silver bullet sports bar.
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Jane Atkinson: Unfortunately, that was one of the negative experiences that I had as a server, because I learned
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Jane Atkinson: kind of a little bit about sexual harassment. We had a manager there, who, I think, liked his cocaine, and he would hit on all the girls, and I remember leaving in tears. I don't remember exactly what he did to me, but
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Jane Atkinson: it wasn't anything physical. It was just when I said no to him.
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Jane Atkinson: He made my life miserable, I think, was how it went. That was my first experience, had no words, for it had no framework for what was going on, but that was actually sexual harassment in the workplace, which I didn't know about at that time.
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Jane Atkinson: So I've been learning things and evolving as a human as I go
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Jane Atkinson: the best I have to say, Temp job that I ever had was through 3 M.
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Jane Atkinson: So 3 am. You know they make posted notes. They make everything.
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Jane Atkinson: and I worked in that department where they worked. They were where they made a post it notes.
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Jane Atkinson: and they always want it to keep me. So I was able to do like I would go in and do a maternity leave, so that might have been a 6 month or a year long project here in Canada. By the way.
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Jane Atkinson: our
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Jane Atkinson: new moms or dads can take up to a year and a half off for maternity or paternity leave it's really
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Jane Atkinson: incredible how
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Jane Atkinson: the support that new moms get, and my step, daughter. Katie
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Jane Atkinson: just had her third child.
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Jane Atkinson: and took a year and a half. It's hard hard getting back to work after that, with a little one with 2 little ones at home.
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Jane Atkinson: So
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Jane Atkinson: here I am, working at 3 M. On my maybe third contract
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Jane Atkinson: and the Home Products Department. They were so nice to me, and I had amazing.
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Jane Atkinson: amazing bosses all throughout. It meant a lot of really cool people.
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Jane Atkinson: but this was the power of manifesting once again kicked in. So I you! You might have heard me tell the story of
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Jane Atkinson: the less Brown Pbs special that I saw.
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Jane Atkinson: I watched this live. Your dream Special recorded it on Vhs and watched it again and again and again.
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And that was the first time I was really exposed to
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Jane Atkinson: a motivational speaker.
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Jane Atkinson: and then they started to bring them through at 3 M. So I had a little bit of exposure there. But I said to myself, oh.
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Jane Atkinson: that's what I want to do after I leave 3. Am I want to go work for a motivational speaker.
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Jane Atkinson: And so I was telling Brenda, who worked alongside me at at 3 am. She was an executive there.
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Jane Atkinson: that that was my goal, and she said, oh, my gosh! My best friend! Best get just the left 3 M. She was an executive.
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Jane Atkinson: and she just went and wrote a book about leadership. And now she's become a motivational speaker. You should talk to her.
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Jane Atkinson: and within a matter of weeks I had my first job as an agent for
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Jane Atkinson: a motivational speaker.
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Jane Atkinson: so
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Jane Atkinson: that you know now and and now I enter into a 30 year
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30 plus here
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Jane Atkinson: in the speaking industry, 30 plus years in the speaking industry. First half was as an agent.
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Jane Atkinson: second half was as a coach.
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Jane Atkinson: and I just to tell you
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Jane Atkinson: total life, Changer.
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Jane Atkinson: I have gone on to manifest all of the things that I would have wanted in my life. But all of the things i'm so so grateful for, and have basically learned to build the life of my dreams
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Jane Atkinson: through the people that I met along the way. Now, one job that I didn't actually the few jobs that I didn't mention of, of of note interesting.
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Jane Atkinson: I worked at a Sunshine village ski resort out in Banff, Canada. I was the assistant to the Vice President of Marketing, as well as I did a couple of since there
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Jane Atkinson: Dave, or when one of the crazy connects. He was also a vice president of marketing and operations, and so I did. Several stints out. There lived up on the top of the hill like I took a gondola up the gondol. Look closed at night, and you couldn't get down the hell unless you' out
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Jane Atkinson: on my lunch hour
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Jane Atkinson: went and got lost in a snowstorm at the top of the hill. Like it was incredible. And here's my lesson from from sunshine.
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Jane Atkinson: Don't wait for all the conditions to be right to take advantage of what's right in front of you. So I would wait for the sun to be out and the snow to be great, and not too many tourists around
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Jane Atkinson: to go out skiing. I should be a far, far, far better skier and more advanced than I am, because I didn't take advantage as much as I should have of the skiing.
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Jane Atkinson: So that was an interesting lesson, and a couple of other just kind of cool jobs I worked on a cruise ship when I was in Australia. That's why Cobra car alarms kept hiring me back after my old jobs. I worked on a cruise ship
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Jane Atkinson: and went on a couple of tours with them as a drinks. Hostess
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Jane Atkinson: got off of the cruise ship, went up the coast to the Great Barrier Reef to cans.
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Jane Atkinson: and got a job as a deck hand
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Jane Atkinson: on a fishing trawler.
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Jane Atkinson: It sounds like the cool is because
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Jane Atkinson: we would trawl all night long and then drop everything in the net in front of us. And basically i'm seeing the great barrier reef on my tray. And then i'm scooping things over the side that we don't want. We were there to fish for prawns.
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Jane Atkinson: and if it wasn't a prawn, it went over the side.
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Jane Atkinson: and then all the dolphins would come and eat the bronze or eat the stuff. We scooped over the side, so there would be dolphins, and then, if they left you'd look down further, and you'd see sharks.
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Jane Atkinson: So it was quite insane that I went from working on a cruise ship where the drinks stewardesses. I think we
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Jane Atkinson: we were called. We got served our our meals from other people who worked on the ship. I went from that to being kind of hampered and catered to
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Jane Atkinson: over to working on a fishing trawler, where I
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Jane Atkinson: smell like fish. For several weeks of my life
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Jane Atkinson: a lot has been learned along the way over these 58 years.
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Jane Atkinson: and i'll apologize if I've been a a little
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Jane Atkinson: like I said, this is a vanity piece. I really wanted to document this someday i'm hoping my kids or grandkids will pull it up and think. Oh, I did not know. Gmon did all those things.
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Jane Atkinson: anyway. I I learned so many things along the way, and I think that that's what life is all about. And if you're not figuring out what the lesson is from all the hard knocks that you take.
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Jane Atkinson: and all the things that you have in your life that are good.
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You're missing about.
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Jane Atkinson: So thank you for indulging my vanity today, and i'll see you. Some wealthy speakers.
Highlights you won’t want to miss:
- When one door closes… [1:00]
- Sticking it out. [3:00]
- Working 3 jobs. [6:00]
- Intense training and travel. [8:00]
- Kindness is key. [10:30]
- Manifest your dreams. [14:00]
- From agent to coach. [16:00]
If you want to learn how you can delve a little deeper to find the career lessons you might have overlooked on your journey, you simply can’t afford to miss this episode.
I hope you’ll download and learn.
Links:
Previous podcasts
Jane’s LinkedIn profile
The Wealthy Speaker 3.0
The Wealthy Speaker School
Private Coaching options
