Sarah Ellis: How to coach yourself and why we should experiment rather than fail in our careers

Our guest today is Sarah Ellis,  co-founder of career- development company Amazing If. Founded with her long-time friend Helen Tupper, what began as a side project to help people with their careers has now grown to a full-on career-boosting powerhouse. They created the concept of 'squiggly careers'- the notion that in the modern world, people's careers are no longer linear with no defined and rigid growth ladders.  Sarah and Helen are the hosts of The Squiggly Careers podcast and the authors of two books, their first being a Sunday Times Bestseller. Their TED talk has also been viewed over 1.5 million times.   Their most recent book is called "You Coach You" and it forms the basis of today's discussion: that coaching works but it’s often only available to the fortunate few.  Packed with practical exercises, tools and advice from inspiring people this book will help you to find answers, take action and achieve more in your career.I also wanted to quickly shout out to an amazing British entrepreneurial story in John Wardle. John is the creator of viral game Wordle and recently sold the game to the New York Times for a 7 figure sum.  Just a few months ago it was played by only a handful of people- it's now played by millions. It shows how something created for friends and family can blow up into something enormous. In today's episode with Sarah we talk about: What Amazing If does What did Sarah did before Squiggly careers and Amazing If What is the process of “co-blending” and did it work for Sarah? Successful career change always happens incrementally The upcoming book You Coach You its the key themes on coaching Explaining the difference between a coach and a mentor Which chapters of her book are the most pwoerful. The importance of 'experimenting' rather than failing in your career.  Any advice that would tell her former self What’s it like founding a business with a close friend Her podcast Squiggly Careers and the best episodes to listen to: #243 How to be a Learn it All and from the Ask the Expert series- Empathy with Roman Krznaric Her Favourite book: The Start-up of You by Reid Hoffman  Subscribe so you don't miss any new episodes, releasing every Wednesday.You can sign up to Jimmy's Substack here for weekly content on the future of work, technology, and politicsFor more information on partnering with us please visit our partnerships page here.Also make sure you subscribe to The Shift, you can find it here on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices