Coffee with Brave Starts founder Lucy Standing
Lucy Standing
Age: 47
Occupational Psychologist and found of Brave Starts
How I met Lucy…
Lucy reached out to me on LinkedIn over a year ago with some recommendations of people I might want to speak to. When I said, I’d like to speak to you… she said not yet… I am in the middle of launching a new project so let’s talk then. The project was and is Brave Starts. Their mission is to make your latter work years you best years yet. Sounds pretty good. Definitely check it out.
Describe your career path in two or three sentences including any twist or turns ending with where you are now.
I went to university and did a master's in occupational psychology, otherwise known as business psychology or organizational psychology.
My Masters led me to a job in an investment bank, where I was designing and running all of the graduate recruitment programmes. I went from investment banking to strategy consulting, where I was a Global Head of Assessment. And then I went into the world of pure consulting where I designed assessment and recruitment processes for lots of different organizations.
Consultancy didn't really work with young children so I left and went freelance. And since going freelance I've been on a bit of a mission to improve the world of career change particularly for people over the age of 50 as they're the ones who traditionally get the least amount of support.
This mission led me to co-found Brave Starts to help 50+ year old professionals reposition their skills and feel confident in their career change to a new industry or role.
What decision / experience proved to be the most helpful to your career? This could include a failure that set you up for later success.
I will start by saying, I don't think I'm successful. And everything I do feels like a bit of a failure. So I think the best thing to deal with that is to have a very, very thick skin and a healthy degree of resilience.
I had to develop these traits almost from the word go. My very first job, I worked for a complete bully, I mean to the extent of screaming, shouting, going red in the face, asking me to make cups of tea and then pouring them in the sink. I had to remind myself, I'm still good at my job, despite what's happening there.
The more that you have to cope with scenarios that some people might describe as emotionally challenging, the better you get at dealing with them. And there's a lot of research around this as well. The people who tend to be the most successful are the ones who can cope with a fairly high degree of adversity. And I think when you're trying to shift a needle or switch gears to something new, you've got to be prepared for that.
What advice would you give your 20 year old self knowing what you do now? And what advice would you tell her / him to ignore?
There’s no fixed path. Secondary and university students are continually asked what are you going to do when you're older? I dislike this question because it may not be one thing - you’ll likely to do four or five different things.
So, my advice would be don't worry about it so much.
We know that 94% of graduates will change jobs within the first two years working so you don't have to be 100% committed to one particular path. Be open minded to the fact that change is always possible. And if you accept this, you'll likely be slightly less stressed about the decisions you're making right now.
When you are feeling stuck or uninspired, what actions do you take or what questions do you ask yourself?
I’m quite disciplined about cracking on and getting stuff done.
I think of that mantra that people always overestimate what they can deliver in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year.
So as long as you are pushing out a couple of hours, you’re going to reach that bigger goal. It's too much to think you’re going to do everything in a day. But if you are disciplined and do a little bit every single day, you will get there in the end.
For me it's really more of a question about the things that I'm spending time doing and asking myself are these the best use of my time? I don't struggle with procrastination. If anything, it is more the case that I'm putting too much time in my diary. But is all of that time always productive? Probably not.
In the last 5 years what new belief, behaviour or habit has most improved your working life (or your approach to creating your post 50 work life)?
The thing that gets better with age is perspective. I'm less concerned and less worried about things. Things that would have kept me up, in my 20s, don’t as much today.
It comes back to that resilience point. You've lived through an awful lot more and dealt with things that are undeniably so much worse. For example, when you've seen a friend die… it just puts everything into perspective. So when someone undermines you at a work meeting, so what?!
If you could put one quote or piece of advice on a big billboard for everyone over 50 to see what would it be?
No one cares, just do better.
What the book or podcast you most recommend for someone thinking about designing their post-50 work life?
The book ‘So Good They Can't Ignore You’ by Cal Newport. He’s an associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University and someone with a huge amount of common sense. Newport refutes the “follow your passion” claim and says the way to find work you love is to pick something you do well and become really good at it. And when you’ve mastered something you are more likely to be passionate about it.
The other book I like is by a guy called Mark Manson. And it's called ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**K’. It’s a modern take on philosophy. I really like the no nonsense approach. It essentially says resilience, happiness and freedom come from knowing what to care about and most importantly, what not to care about.
Both of them are very readable and hugely enjoyable. I also think their advice is spot on.
