Here is who I am in a (coco)nutshell!

I’m Fabiana Leal, a digital solopreneur and mid-career designer, Brazilian expat based on the Italian hills near Bologna.

You might have read some of my posts or watched my videos across social media. I’m actively posting mid-career growth tactics on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Have you ever asked yourself the following questions:

• I want to check out the job market, where do I start from?
• How can I update my CV without cutting off my experience?
• How can I revamp my LinkedIn profile and start getting job interviews?
• Do I need more certifications to pivot my career?
• How to answer job interviews questions smartly?
• Am I too old to find a new job?

If so then you’ve come to the right place!

Whether you’re employed but still feel not using your full power to get a promotion, or you’re stuck where you are and want to find a way to market yourself and pivot, I’m here to help you.

Unemployment and Middle Age Crisis

I never wanted to be a stay-home-mom.

I was happy as a career woman, making money and enjoying my path.

By that time I had a stable job and a lot of visibility on the job market. I continuously got calls from headhunters and was used to saying no to job and employment opportunities.

My confidence and self-esteem were at their highest levels.

But life happens and I decided to have kids. My first daughter was born in 2014. I thought it'd be easy to cope with the baby and work. But it was not for me.

I was not willing to work overtime, travel, or be too ambitious to try a promotion. For the first time in my life, work went to the bottom of my fulfillment list. So I decided to have another child. My second daughter came in 2016.

I remember crying during the week I was supposed to return to work. I really didn't want to go back. I felt that working and raising a family the way I wanted were not compatible.

But the trigger to my mid-life crisis was not solely maternity.

My life changed on September 22nd, 2016. This is the day I was fired from my stable, well-paying job.

I never ever would imagine I could be fired one day. But it happened. I felt rejected and inferior to everyone.

Unemployment brought up depression and a complete loss of my self-esteem and confidence.

Although I got good financial compensation for my contract termination, I feared I was going to end up poor and starving. Common thoughts I had were:

• I can't afford house help anymore.
• It's impossible to pay our monthly bills.
• No company will hire a mom with a baby and a toddler.
• I will never earn the same salary again.

I didn't know what to do. I just knew I didn't want to go back to the corporate life I had before.

The Future of Work and Relocating to Italy

I started asking questions to myself. How can I be a better professional? How can I stay employable as a senior professional in the digital transformation era?

My pursuit of those answers drove my strategies to land a job exactly where I wanted. An innovative fintech.

I had a very good time there. I felt free for the first time in my career. I was able to create and work on innovation projects.

But I was still not happy. There was something missing.

Years before my husband and I started to design a possible move to a new country. The fintech unfortunately was not the place to be when it came to international mobility.

I had to change jobs. Again.

And so I did it. I landed another job in a multinational with a very clear desire to relocate within two years.

I also heard an internal voice calling my long-life learning plan. I wanted to take another Master's and so I went for it. I started a course focused on People Management and Leadership.

On a Friday evening, one of the professors lectured about the future of work. I can't describe what I felt, it deeply touched me.

It was a call for change. Another change.

I had a long conversation with my husband and we agreed all our efforts would converge to move to Europe.

It seems absurd, but after two weeks he received a job offer to relocate to Italy.

So we sold almost everything we had, including our house, and took that chance.

Sabbatical Leave and Purposeful Work

We arrived in Modena in May 2018. Although I had previous experiences of living abroad, this time was completely different.

It was like moving to a new planet. I went from corporate career life to being a 24x7 mom.

Kids eventually went to kindergarten and I started to have time for myself.

I acknowledge this period as my sabbatical leave. For the first time in my adult life, I was not working and could use time on myself.

After a bunch of inner work, I decided it was time to get back to corporate life.

Although I had 17+ years of experience, I felt like an impostor.

I was not fluent in Italian and people around me said it would be really hard to find a job.

But I didn't believe in them. Instead, I researched industries, people, and requirements for jobs.

I designed my strategies and implemented them.

Then I was hired in a new country without language fluency!

This is something I'm proud of myself.

I have this incredible ability to make plans happen, especially when it comes to landing jobs!

I realized THAT was actually my superpower when on a work trip in a small Italian town, getting dressed for the day.

That day I started Career Lab 4IR to help people do what I'm really good at: design and implement strategies for career growth.

Sor far, I have worked with 100+ people from all over the world. Some of them landed amazing jobs, got 50% pay raise, moved countries, or pivoted their careers.

I'm passionate about my job and teach tactics so more women like me can keep their jobs and even move forward.

If who I am and what I do resonate with you, stay here and let me help you navigate into the digital transformation era.

I'm pretty sure you wanna grow and stay employable. What you're probably missing is how to position yourself in the job market.

I can help you with that right now!

This is why I created the free Guide How to Double Your LinkedIn Profile Views Without Posting with actionable tactics in 3 steps.

What you'll learn in a straightforward way is:

3 Keys To Visibility
Where to Start From and How to Optimize Them. (easy and painless things you must do)

Search Engine Optimization
Use Keywords Relevant to Your Mid-Career Target. (learn a quick way to find them)

Action
Be Visible Without Posting. (your boss will never know)

It won't be a magic spell to get you to your next job, but it will be a start - and that is the only way to get anywhere worth going!

Let's rock.