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Conversations with the Inspiring Sarabeth Berk

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarabeth Berk.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Sarabeth. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
More Than My Title began with an identity crisis followed by an identity awakening. At the start of my career, I was an art teacher, a job I loved dearly, but eventually, it felt limiting. Everywhere I went and every job I applied to, people saw me as a teacher, yet in my soul, I knew I was more. I was a curriculum specialist, a graphic designer, a connector, a transformer, a visionary, an innovator, and a disruptor. Frustrated and ready to grow my career, I knew I had to break out of my “art teacher” label to stop being defined by that title.

I tried two things and learned two important lessons. First, in my cover letter to potential employers, I wrote, “I’m Sarabeth, and I consider myself to be an artist/educator/designer. Let me explain why this matters for this position.” I literally used slashes to string my identities together, which called attention to my primary professional identities instead of expecting employers to decipher them for themselves. This led to getting job interviews and offers. Second, I enrolled in a doctoral program where I learned how to conduct research. Becoming a researcher (an identity I’ve since added) taught me how to study concepts more meaningfully.

At this point, I became obsessed with professional identity and wondered, “How are other people more than their job titles?” I started interviewing friends, colleagues, peers, neighbors, strangers, and anyone else who would talk with me. That’s when I realized there’s this other group of people in the workforce. Hybrids are hiding among us, and I am one of them. In 2019, I did a TEDx talk, started presenting this concept at events, and then I wrote the book More Than My Title and released it in April 2020. The book is one element. More Than My Title is growing and becoming a business. My goal is to build a movement around the power of hybrid professionals and inspire a transformation in the workforce.

Has it been a smooth road?
My career journey has been a nonlinear path, and that hasn’t traditionally been celebrated or spoken about as being normal. It’s taken me a decade to realize that my career journey is what a lot of people experience. The idea of graduating college and staying with a company for 40 years is dead. People used to tell me my resume looked like I was a job hopper, but in reality, changing jobs every 2.5 years is the average, so I wasn’t a job hopper, I was pushing and growing my career.

The struggles I’ve encountered have largely been around building my confidence. I didn’t think I was or could be an entrepreneur. I was scared to start something on my own. More Than My Title began as a passion project, a research project I was doing on the side because I was obsessed with it and really wanted to share it with the world. I never imagined it would become a business.

The other struggles have been around balancing a full-time job while launching and writing the book, as well as trying to understand/design a business model where a book becomes a business (that’s not as straightforward as creating a product and developing traditional sales and marketing plans). I became a hermit where I worked at my job during the day and then worked on the book and book launch during nights, holidays, and weekends. I had to be a recluse for five months because there was no time or extra energy to socialize.

Of course, the final struggle is money. I was “bookstrapping” and wasn’t sure how or if I could create enough revenue to start a business (book sales are not enough to run a business). I’m still in the early stages but now I’m at the point where I’m diversifying my revenue streams, adding more products based on the book content, and I’m adding more business strategy to get me to the next milestone which is become profitable.

The advice I have for others is really to start small, iterate, and validate your idea by seeing if you can get paying customers. My two indicators that I was onto something were: 1) having people purchase the workbook (the predecessor of the book) who were not friends/family and did not live in my hometown. Those were true customers. 2) Growing my newsletter list, which demonstrated the size and degree of engagement. Without demonstrating little wins and some market traction, I would have stopped, But as I see growth in my audience and sales, I know there’s more room to grow and build. That’s keeping me motivated.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
I specialize in hybrid professionals and helping people find their hybrid identity. I’m a professional identity research, and I’ve created a new framework for how to integrate our multiple professional identities together. Who are you in the intersections of your different identities? No one is asking us that question, yet it’s the key to unlocking our truest value as workers.

The idea of hybrid professionals is profound. I’ve tapped into a concept that literally will transform the workforce, and it’s more critical now than ever. With COVID-19, the workforce will never be the same again. In order for workers to move forward and find their way in this new world, they need to look at their professional identities (their brand) and find how to convey their unique hybridity. Taking this time to assess and define a person’s hybrid identity is their true power and what makes them valuable to employers and in the workplace.

No one else is talking about this concept or has the frameworks or tools I’ve created. It’s a whole new language and mindset to bring into professional development, and everyone will benefit from it. When there’s a crisis, we need to reinvent ourselves and allow new parts of ourselves emerge. Finding your hybrid identity is the foundation of that work. Back when Brene Brown wasn’t well known and she was talking about vulnerability and shame, I think that’s where I’m at with this concept of hybrid professionals. In a few years, I believe this will be popularized and common knowledge in how we hire, train, recruit and retain talent, just like looking for specialists and other types of workers.

Do you have a lesson or advice you’d like to share with young women just starting out?
You can be more than one professional identity, and you can create your own professional identity to call yourself. You don’t have to settle for one type of job or industry, and you don’t have to wait to be given a formal “job title.” I call myself a creative disruptor. That’s my hybrid title. I can use this title whether or not I’m employed, and when I have a job, I use this title alongside my introductions because calling myself a “program director” is pretty generic. You have the power to create your own professional identity and name yourself- that’s my advice to young women.

I talk with a lot of college students who are getting mixed messages. They have to pick a major, yet they also have a minor, lead student clubs, join extracurriculars, work in an internship, and pursue all kinds of other interests. This is to make them well-rounded and help them gain experience, yet they don’t know how to connect all these different parts of themselves. This is their “student hybridity.” When they use my tools and get clear about who they are in these different situations, they’re able to create a title for themselves that can be used when they’re talking to potential employers. It’s a huge “aha” for them, and no one told them they could or should do this.

No one is talking to pre-professionals (aka students) about professional identity as a critical element of career development. We discuss passions and purpose and never ask, “but what do you call yourself? Who are you?” Being a student or a worker who is “early in their career” aren’t professional identity titles. We’re doing a disservice to young women by not helping them develop their identity.

Pricing:

  • More Than My Title Book and Workbook (on Amazon): $19.97
  • Online courses to Find Your Hybrid Identity: $60+

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