Nancy Leighton: From Brooks Brothers to Building a Coaching Practice | EP 194

Bucket List Careers

Nancy Leighton shares her professional evolution from a retail buyer at Brooks Brothers to the founder of her own career counseling practice

Key takeaways

Nancy Leighton transitioned from a retail buyer role at Brooks Brothers to running a counseling practice with two supervised counselors.
She completed her master's degree over a four-year period while working full-time in the retail sector.
The coaching methodology relies on assessing four key pillars: interests, skills, personality, and values.
Nancy utilizes Department of Labor data to help clients research salary ranges and growth potential for identified career paths.
She emphasizes that volunteering is a vital way to gain experience and 'test out' new career directions.

Main topics

Career pivoting
Retail industry background
Career assessment methodologies

Notable quotes

I'd rather live in a basement apartment in Brooklyn and be happy than, you know, than doing something that made me miserable.

Conclusion

The episode serves as an inspiring guide for professionals seeking cha

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) For many of us, going further isn't a choice. It's a feeling we can't ignore. Because ambition has a way of outgrowing where it began. Turning dreams into direction. Every journey brings us closer to the life we imagine. So, where will your journey take you? Etihad. Beyond borders. Speaker 4 (0:30) This is Believe. One network. Every topic. Everywhere. Speaker 3 (0:43) Welcome back to Bucket List Careers, the show where we talk to people who left one path to build a career that truly lights them up. I'm Krista Laurie. Thanks so much for joining me. My guest today spent six years in retail. including being a buyer at Brooks Brothers before walking away to become a career counselor. Then 30 years later, it probably feels like lifetimes ago, right, Nancy? It does. She runs her own practice supervising two other counselors and has helped countless clients figure out what they actually feel they're supposed to be doing with their lives. Nancy Leighton, welcome to the show. Speaker 2 (1:21) Thank you so much for having me, Krista. Oh, Speaker 3 (1:24) it's a pleasure to do this. You know, We do dial it back. I know there's so much wisdom we can gain from you by talking about your current coaching practice. But just for the sake of your narrative and the evolution to where you are now, let's start at the beginning. I know you were an English major. So was I, by the way. So were you. Walk me through how you ended up in retail. Speaker 2 (1:46) Yeah. No, absolutely. Speaker 2 (1:50) I always loved reading. I always loved writing. And originally, I wanted to do what you do. I always knew I wanted to ask people a lot of questions. My father also used to call me Perry Mason because I used to ask a lot Speaker 3 (2:04) of Speaker 2 (2:05) questions. Speaker 3 (2:07) And Speaker 2 (2:07) when I graduated, I just wasn't finding anything that excited me in terms of finding a job. And I had to find a job. So, and the only thing I knew, my father was in retail. He was an executive at Lord & Taylor. And the only thing I knew was retailing. And that's why he said, you know, open a participle store was the big joke. So I got a job with Bloomingdale's executive training program. Speaker 3 (2:35) And Speaker 2 (2:35) that was my first job at a school. And I knew from day one that it was not the right fit for me. I was just going to ask that question. At what Speaker 3 (2:42) point did you notice the Speaker 2 (2:43) shift? Very, very early. Very early on. Okay. Speaker 3 (2:47) Yeah. Speaker 2 (2:47) Yeah. Speaker 3 (2:48) You also audited a counseling course at a teacher's college at Columbia. You've said you knew from the first class that Speaker 4 (2:57) this was a way better Speaker 3 (2:59) fit. So let's talk Speaker 4 (3:01) about your pivot, Speaker 3 (3:02) even if it is, you know, a bit later. Did you take a career pause then? Speaker 2 (3:06) No, I, no. In fact, I did it. It was really tough. And I actually share that with my clients sometimes too, because I was doing this job that I really didn't like and going to school at night. So what happened was I thought I wanted to do counseling and I did, I audited a course at Teachers College and I, the first day the professor was speaking and the light bulb went off and I thought, this is what I'm meant to do. And I decided I was going to pursue that degree, but I did it while I worked full time. I could only take classes that were offered at 7 p.m. or later because I couldn't get off work. I couldn't tell my employer what I was doing. I needed my job. So I did that. And eventually I had to quit my job and do an internship and that sort of thing. But it wasn't easy. And I was really motivated because I really wanted to do it. I found something. Speaker 3 (4:01) Yeah. And it felt right for you, but you did say, Nancy, that your family didn't support the decision at first. That's right. They thought that the counseling degree for you was a mistake. So what was that like to sit with? Speaker 2 (4:12) No, it's very difficult. And again, my clients experience this all the time and I bring personal experience to, you know, to the session sometimes because, you know, my family was just, they couldn't understand, you know, why I would spend