As a leading Executive Career Coach and HR Director for over 20 years, Melissa Stone established her consulting business, HR Support Ireland, in 2021 (www.hrsupportireland.com)
While sitting on a number of Charity Boards and Not for Profits in Ireland at the time of the pandemic, Melissa then decided to further expand her service offering by establishing an Executive Coaching Business, Your Career Coach, in order to better serve corporate professionals seeking greater career fulfilment
(www.yourcareercoachireland.com)
Through Your Career Coach, clients can expect a range of services, from top quality executive resume writing services, interview coaching and preparation, a renewed sense of self-belief and confidence, and strategic action planning to achieve their career goals and dreams.
Melissa creates social media content to motivate people in her network to believe in their value and potential, and push themselves to achieve the career success they want and deserve.
I interviewed Melissa to find out more:
What led you to start creating your own content?
When I first started my HR and Corporate Governance Consulting business (www.hrsupportireland.com) , executive coaching was simply an “arm” to this – an opportunity for businesses to provide leadership or executive support programs to professional staff so that they might upskill or better prepare for the next stage in their career journey.
But during the pandemic, many people around the world found themselves feeling “stuck”. They realised that they were unhappy or unfulfilled by their career, but equally unclear as to what an alternative job choice or career may be. This lack of clarity meant a lot of people stayed put where they were, without any real idea of what a career change might look like.
I established my second business, Your Career Coach (www.yourcareercoachireland.com ) to focus my time and energy supporting professional people to move beyond this lack of clarity, and support them as they land their dream job.
I started creating content using this concept as a base for how people were feeling, and how they can set a foundation for future career success. Whether this meant a good quality resume, a strong sense of self-belief and confidence, an understanding of what their purpose or calling in life may be…and ultimately reimagining life as a successful version of themselves, working in their dream job.
How did your experiences in job coaching inform your content?
It is important for me to bring my own experiences into my content. I have been working in Executive Career Coaching, Training and Development, Employment Law, and as a HR Director for over 20 years, so content is a real mixture of research and data/other workplace developments, and employment law, as well as my own experiences in guiding and supporting people to achieve their dreams in life and work. My content is rooted in ideas and tools that work, and that will genuinely get people from A (unhappy or unsuccessful at work) to B (achieving a level of career success they dream of).
How did you begin to grow your online presence?
I have invested a lot in my own personal growth and development from a business coaching perspective since I established Your Career Coach last year. I have learned a lot about engaging followers and growing my content. I went from zero followers to over 3000 in less than a year with no advertising or marketing budget. I am really proud of this – I didn’t even know how to post on Instagram or LinkedIn before August 2022!!
What preparation works goes into creating the videos that you do. How did you choose what content goes in your videos?
I like my posts to be topical. I tend to see what’s trending, what’s going on in the news, or what time of the year it is. There are also certain things that I’m really passionate about, regardless of the weather, the time of year or what might be newsworthy.
For example, I really do enjoy helping professionals from all walks of life regardless of gender, age, nationality etc. but am hugely passionate in particular about supporting and empowering females at work…or helping those who may be underrepresented in the workplace to break through glass ceilings or other barriers to achieve the career success they want and deserve.
My grandma, Dr Hazel Boland, was a very well-respected GP and feminist in Ireland during the 1970’s and 1980’s in particular, advocating for women’s health and equality. I adored my grandma and looked up to her for as long as I can remember. Continuing her work in empowering women in this country is a very real and important passion of mine.
So I will often create content that speaks to women who feel disempowered for some reason. Perhaps they have worked in toxic work-environments or have felt a crushing blow to their confidence. Perhaps they have faced mental, physical or women’s health challenges and they are without a language or a framework to deal with this at work in a positive way.
I will also often create content specific to certain disability groups to help support their career journey. When it comes to career success, I am definitely an advocate for those who, for whatever reason, feel they cannot, and try to create content that shows them that they CAN.
What platforms do you publish the content on?
I am on Instagram @melissa_stone_career_coach Facebook @yourcareerandinterviewcoach and on Linked In Melissa Stone
- What type of content do you find resonates on what social media sites? Does certain content work better on some social media rather than others?
That’s always an interesting one for me. I guess the algorithm and content will be better absorbed by a different audience depending on the topic (ie if videos are quite professional in nature, I tend to get more engagement on LinkedIn, whereas if they are quite generic or a little more playful or fun, it could swing either way on the various platforms)
How has creating these videos impacted upon your business?
Videos tend to be much more useful in nature that picture posts or memes, etc. This is important as videos serve a greater purpose to help and guide my followers, which also impacts on my reputation as a coach that can provide good quality support.
I tend to always set out a call to action in my content, whether it is to DM me for a free guide or to offer a free Discovery Call to understand their situation and see if and how I might be able to support them. Videos are crucial to my overall business development strategy. Without videos, I wouldn’t be able to help people for free with quality content simply by clicking on my page, or to connect to the fullest extent with future clients who are looking for more robust support.
What other people have you seen creating content like yours that you admire?
Coaching is a relatively new concept to Ireland. A lot of people reach out to me and say they have never heard of career coach, that they have been feeling “stuck” or unhappy in their career for years but didn’t know who to turn to. There are some super coaches in our sector though, and everyone brings a touch of something special to their content.
To be honest, I really admire all of my fellow female coaches who are in this space trying to improve the lives of professional women in Ireland. Whether that’s navigating health, wellness, life, motherhood, nutrition, confidence, sport, or career….we are all playing a role to empower Irish women to achieve their goals. I love that. Dr Boland would be proud of us all.