Regardless of your age, experience, or stature, making a transition in your work can be so painful. It takes effort, creates ambiguity, and forces change in your life. There’s uncertainty. Imposter syndrome is ever present. Your life is impacted. The lives of people you love are impacted.
It’s like a jigsaw puzzle you’re trying to solve without knowing what the final picture should look like. And you’re terrified that when you finally commit and piece things together, you’ll regret the decisions you made when the picture becomes clear.
Through Crabwalk, we’re aiming to make career transitions so much easier and less risky. And we’re doing that by teaching you the skills and benefits of involving the people you already know along the way.
When you include others in a strategic way in any work transitions, it will not only make it less lonely and more fun, but a whole lot faster. Why is that? The reasons are endless, but a few:
You’ll spend less time in your head
You’ll open your eyes to game-changing ideas and solutions you never knew existed
You’ll find an opportunity that you didn’t know you could ever dream of
You’ll have the support and accountability that keeps you going
It doesn’t matter if you think you have lots of friends OR if you say you’re connected to just your family and a few close friends. We guarantee you know more people than you think and we’ll give you the skills to reconnect or reach to people that seem almost impossible to right now.
Want to learn how to leverage who you already know to move your career forward?
That’s the secret sauce we teach at Crabwalk. Let’s go.
Give Crabwalk a try and get unstuck.
Start by taking just 5 minutes to think of one area in your work where you’re currently feeling stuck.
It doesn’t matter how big or small it is. It doesn’t have to be final or perfect. Any area will do for this exercise. Then follow along with the framework below and fill out this worksheet along with us (just make a copy first so you can edit it as you go).
Need some help? Emails us your worksheet with any and all questions! We’d be happy to help you along. Interested in taking this further? Sign-up for our newsletter to hear about upcoming workshops and free webinars.
The Simple 5-Step Crabwalk Framework
STEP 1: Create your Ideal Outcome
Why this matters:
If you don’t know what you’re going after, you’re more likely to feel overwhelmed when deciding what step to make next. How can you win the game if you don’t know what winning looks like? How can you move forward if you don’t know which direction takes you where you want to go?
If you feel lost as you do this exercise, always come back to this step.
Exercise:
Take 10 minutes to think about these questions: What would success look like in this area 90 days from now? What would the impact be?
Then write your answer in Step 1 in the worksheet.
Tips:
Pick one goal to start. It doesn’t matter if it’s perfect or the “right goal.” Success is writing down a goal (hint: your goal can be to get clarity on what a good goal would be). That’s it.
Have more than one goal? Put them on separate list and come back to them. You can do this exercise over and over again with different goals
Make your goal specific — or “SMART” — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-oriented
STEP 2: Assess the progress you’ve already made and where you’re getting stopped
Why this matters:
If you don’t assess where you’re at now, how can you know what you need to do next? If Michael Phelps is falling short of his swimming record, you think his coach just took a random guess at what to fix on Day 1? Probably not. Ever have someone try to fix your problems without ever asking you any questions? Same thing. Not usually very productive.
Start first by outlining everything that you’re doing towards reaching your goal. Daily workouts? Healthy diet? Great form? From there, write down where you’re getting stopped. What are the gaps to fill?
Maybe you’re getting stopped because of a lack of knowledge, money, accountability, connections, advice, clarity, new ideas, etc. Or maybe anxiety and imposter syndrome have been getting in your way. Or a lack of confidence that you can do it at all. All of those are legit. And may change overtime. That’s A-OK, very common and something you can overcome. The first part is getting specific about what it is that’s even stopping you.
We’ve included some examples in Step 2 of the worksheet. Now your turn.
Exercise:
Write down 5-10 things you’ve done towards reaching your goal (hint: one is you’re reading this blog post right now…)
Write down at least 3 concrete things that are getting you stopped
For each area that you’re getting stopped, think about the following:
What’s one thing that would help you get unstopped in this area?
Who comes to mind that you could ask to help you get unstopped.
What's the best way to reach out to them?
When will I realistically do this? How will I make sure I do it?
Tips:
Include anything and everything that is contributing to you reaching your goal. Don’t hold back! Write down anything that comes to mind. It helps to remind yourself that you’ve actually done quite a bit.
Include one area where you’re getting stopped in each row. Get really specific.
Not sure how to reach out to people who could help you? Keep moving on to Steps 3, 4 and 5 below!
STEP 3: Create your Crabwalk Roster
Why this matters:
There’s no way we can do 100% of things on our own. We need to work with others. If we’re looking to lean on others for help, we need to remember who we even know. Without writing it down, it’s too many names to remember. The human brain will limit you to whoever was most recent or most impactful. Start by blowing that list wide open.
Exercise:
Set aside 20-30 minutes to fill out this Step 3 - Roster Template. Good news: you only have to do this once and then it’s easy to maintain! Just keep adding names as they come to mind It’s so worth it. The names that pop up will surprise you and be eternally helpful down the road. Instructions are included in the template.
Tips:
Set a timer for 20 minutes - don’t stop until the timer is done. Keep writing!
Start by writing out all the communities you are apart of like: college, home town, 1st job, internship, volleyball league, book group, religious organizations
Include groups from your past, present and future.
Don’t worry if you’ve lost touch. Anyone and everyone you’ve had a connection with, or plan to have a connection with, can and should land on your roster.
STEP 4: Nurture your Roster
Why this matters:
If you’re not building relationships, how could you leverage them? If you’ve never talked to your neighbor, it would be weird to walk over and ask them to feed your cat for the weekend. If you’ve been working on that relationship, you trust them, they trust you, that ask is much easier.
It’s the same reason why it’s easier to ask an ex-boss for a connection versus someone you just met at the buffet table at that one networking event. Work with the people you already have and do it in a genuine, kind, respectful, and authentic way.
Exercise:
Outline how you already nurture relationships and create 2 new nurture routines for people on your Crabwalk Roster. You can use this template in Step 4 of the worksheet.
The nurture routine should include:
What’s natural and easy for you.
How you already communicate with them and what’s authentic and genuine.
A list of possible nurture activities (like grabbing coffee, or inviting them to take a walk, or sending them a card on their birthday)
Tips:
Think about people who could be really helpful for you in helping you get over where you’re stopped
Be authentic to you (don’t go out for coffee if you don’t like coffee!)
Match the nurture activity to the person you’re nurturing (not everyone will want to be nurtured in the same way or frequency)
STEP 5: Make the Ask!
Why this matters:
If you don’t ask for what you need, people will not give it to you. Sounds so simple. Yet sometimes it feels so hard. This exercise will hopefully make it easier.
The only way to know if people will help, is if you ask. They may say no, but that’s ok. Your only job is to ask. As you get better, the likelihood of someone saying yes may increase. But that’s it. Start asking today. Don’t wait to be perfect. It gets easier over time, we promise.
Exercise
Outline one ask for someone that would get you unstuck in reaching your Ideal Outcome! You can use the template in Step 5 for this, but make it your own. Hint: Go back to your Step 1 where you outlined where you were stopped. What could unstop you? Who on your Roster could help you with that? What would the ask be? That’s the ask you’re outlining here.
Tips:
Match the ask to the person you’re talking to - make sure it’s an appropriate ask for that person and your relationship to that person.
Know that sometimes the answer will be “no” and that’s ok! Go on to ask someone else.
If you get a bunch of no’s, you can run the ask by a trusted friend to see if there’s anything they would recommend you could tweak with it. Be open to feedback. They want to help.
How did you do?
Congrats on getting through the 5-Step Framework! How did you do? Fill out our 1-minute quiz below!
Some of you will be naturals at nurturing but not confident in your asks. Others will know what they want and yet feel like they’ve exhausted their connections. And some of you will feel like you’re a novice or a pro at it all. That’s all perfect! Wherever you are is great.
Take stock so you know where you can focus your energy going forward. Plus, you’ll help us create helpful materials for you.
Looking for some additional help? We’re here!
We host office hours, free webinars, extended workshops and 1:1 coaching. You can also sign up for our newsletter to get periodic emails with tools, stories, upcoming programming, etc. Or email us anytime at hello@thecrabwalk.com with your worksheet or just some questions / stories / feedback. We’d love to hear from you!