Welcome to Invest in Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur Podcast. Join the podcast mogul Phil Benner as he interviews successful entrepreneurs that make their living in the digital world. Now let's join your host Phil Benner as a special guest today on Invest in Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur podcast. Welcome back to another exciting episode of invest in yourself, the digital entrepreneur podcast. I'm, of course, your host with the most feel better. And today, we have a guest who is truly the master of crafting and navigating dream careers. They are a dynamic force in the world of career development and creative freelancing from her early days as a professional dancer and choreographer to a role as a adjunct dance professor. Our guest has dedicated her life to helping others build sustainable and fulfilling careers.

She's the founder and CEO of CareerStewart, where she leverages her expertise as a certified business coach and career strategist to guide professionals towards fulfilling their ideal path. Their impressive journey includes authoring the freelance dancer's roadmap and contributing to over a 100 insightful articles on career and business topics to top national publications. Whether you're a career creative freelancer, transitioning careers, reentering the workforce or pursuing a side hustle, our guest has the tools and wisdom to help you live your purpose and love your work, which we all want. In this episode, our guest will share her remarkable experiences, offer actionable advice on building a career that aligns with your passions and discusses how you can turn your dream into reality. I'm excited for this. So get ready to gain invaluable insight from a true expert in career stewardship. Please welcome our guest, Shetay Hayes. Shetay, thank you so much for being here.

Did I mess up your name again?

No. That was perfect. And what a lovely intro. I loved all that sauce you put on

it, Phil. Like, that was hot. I like that. You're welcome. I I I look to be the emcee, you know, the hype man of this podcast. I'm not the star. You're the star. I just hype you up to get everybody ready for an amazing interview.

So I thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me. I'm excited about today's conversation.

Alright. So we're gonna start off right off the bat, Chatea. Why Why did you become an entrepreneur? What was it that made you decide to go from, you know, not the corporate world, but into the world of, like, freelancing and all that fun stuff?

Yeah. I I always knew I wanted to come back to independent work. So in my professional dance career, I was a commercial dancer, so you are essentially, you know, your own be your own business. You're a freelance business, and you're working from gig to gig, and you are, you know, building the career on your own terms. And while it's quite fulfilling, and I really, really loved it, like, it's a it's a constant hustle. It's a constant grind. And one of the reasons that I transitioned into corporate, like, I had sort of evolved in my personal career. I wanted a different lifestyle, didn't really want to be, like, on for 12, 15 hours a day, so I wanted to do something different.

And quite honestly, maybe a little bit more stable, and I did that and then was kinda like, okay. I know I'm ready for the creativity, the freedom again, the autonomy in a different way. And I wanted to be able to help people with their career sort of stuck places in the way that I wanted to help them, not in the way that is traditionally most important in corporate spaces, to be honest.

I like that. I like that. Yeah. And so you transitioned from, you know, being your own boss in the dancing world, going to corporate, and now you're you're you're creating your own stewardship for people's careers. Yeah. What was that transition like going from, you know, being a freelancer, pretty much a corporate dancer to going into the corporate world to where you are today? Like those transitions, they're kind of hard. How did you deal with them?

Yeah. That's a really great question. It was interesting because in my first career, I will say this, I've been fortunate enough to do all of the work that I've ever done, I have been passionate about. I have loved the work that I've done, and I was intentional. Like, I chose it. And in my dance career, I was like, oh my gosh. I love this. I never really expected to want to transition.

It caught me off guard that I was ready to evolve into something more. And when I finally took the plunge, I felt like I went from 0 to a 100, like, overnight. You know, I kinda had been feeling nudgings and signs. And, like, one day, as I'm traveling from adjudicating a dance concert and teaching classes, because that was that was my life. It was, you know, I got a master's in dance. I'm an adjunct professor. I'm teaching at 5 or 6 college campuses during the day. I'm in rehearsals for theater where I'm choreographing a show from, like, 6 to 11 at night.