Grace made $18K her first year in business. Today she teaches soft skills to teams at companies like Spotify, Amazon, and DoorDash, and it all started with a candle.
Why I wanted Grace on the show:
Grace is a friend, and one of the most honest voices on work online. She's known for her spicy takes, especially for Gen Z navigating their careers, and I wanted to hear what it's really like to be that direct on the internet, how her business actually works, and what it took to go from feeling stuck in her career to building something of her own.
About Grace:
She's a creator and speaker with 200K+ followers across platforms who teaches soft skills and career navigation. She leads keynotes and custom workshops for teams at brands like Spotify, Amazon, Marriott, DoorDash, and Live Nation, and runs The Soft Skill School, her private paid community.
Before starting her own company in 2021, she spent nearly a decade working across claims, beauty PR, operations, and insurtech startups.
In this episode, you'll hear:
- what a real week looks like inside her business, from sales calls to custom proposals to 12 videos on a good hair day
- growing up with "white collar world, blue collar values," and her parents' deal: we'll pay for college, you'll give a year of service
- a year running an emergency food pantry for $200 a month, and why it sent her into corporate
- the 2020 pay cut that made her feel two inches tall, and the career coach who refused to tell her what to do
- the real origin story: getting fired, a custom candle from a magic shop, and her dad's idea
- free workshops, a very stiff first LinkedIn video, bartending, and paid tarot readings on the way to building a business
- why betting on yourself doesn't have to mean starting a company, and her one rule for growing an audience: stop talking about yourself
Learn more about Grace here: http://www.gracemccarrick.com
Follow Grace on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/grace_mccarrick/
Read the Granola notes from this episode and chat with them here: https://notes.granola.ai/t/63611a47-76c9-43fe-aca8-5b7912c27365-009c2hma
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About the good work talk show
"the good work talk show" is a deeply honest exploration of work and how it can be a tool for discovering and becoming your best self. hosted by mallory contois, each episode is a conversation with someone whose career you may have admired from afar, without knowing the full picture.
Get every episode in your inbox with mallory's notes and takeaways: watchgoodwork.com
Find audio-only versions of every episode wherever you listen to podcasts.
Subscribe to "good work" on Substack: readgoodwork.com
Follow the good work talk show on instagram: @watchgoodwork
Follow mallory on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mallorycontois
Season 01 is presented by Granola. Get 3 months free at Granola.ai/goodwork
Produced by Joseph M. Olender
Directed by Adam Chavez
Edited by Aaron Bratcher
Graphics by Saltwater Agency
Theme music: "The Other Side" by The Deep West. used with permission. © ℗ 2021 The Deep West. Listen on Spotify.
