In today’s episode, host Lorie Jones sits down with Sara Altuna, president of Base—a company revolutionizing executive support for today’s leaders. Sara’s journey is anything but traditional, from navigating unexpected early motherhood and career pivots, to redefining success on her own terms.
Sara and Lorie explore how asking for what you want can unlock unprecedented career growth, the importance of self-advocacy, and the value of challenging outdated beliefs—like whether a woman’s success should ever be limited by tradition or fear.
Stay tuned as Sara shares the crucial lessons and actionable frameworks that have shaped her extraordinary rise, plus the advice she believes every ambitious woman should hear. If you’ve ever wondered what’s truly possible when you dare to be curious, courageous, and unapologetically yourself, this episode is for you.
Show Highlights:
- Returning to college and a career path after a teen pregnancy. [04:03]
- The executive assistant stigma vs. its limitless potential. [07:16]
- The limitless power of asking for what you want in a career. [08:59]
- Is keeping your head down the answer to workplace toxicity? [12:19]
- Getting a law degree or MBA as a default for an unclear path vs. ROI. [20:48]
- Advice on handling impostor syndrome after a work hiatus. [22:49]
- Perception of comfort when reporting to male vs. female managers. [26:29]
- Learn a CEO’s proven career success framework for young women. [31:34]
- How to connect with Sara Altuna for early-career advice. [38:00]
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review!
For more information about Lorie Jones, go to https://fearlessfinancialadvisors.com/fearless-females.
00:02.20
Lorie Jones
Good morning, fearless females. So today we’re here with Sara Altoona. She is the president of BASE and we’re so excited that you’ve joined us today. Thank you so much, Sara.
00:12.92
Sara Altuna
Yeah, thank you for having me. Excited to be here.
00:15.51
Lorie Jones
So my first question, um I’ve heard it’s the hardest, is i am a reader. i love books. What is your favorite book?
00:23.86
Sara Altuna
This is a really, really hard question. um I feel like my favorite like but books as far as fiction change with the seasons and change with as I’m changing, I guess. um So I’ll start by saying my favorite professional book is Unreasonable Hospitality by ah Will Guidara.
00:42.33
Sara Altuna
If you haven’t read it, you should absolutely read it. um Our whole team has read it and we’re really committed to like everything he has in there. Then when it comes to fiction, Okay, I would say probably if I had to, I would say the Elena Ferrante series, My Brilliant Friend, um onward. Those are the only books that I think I’ve ever read twice.
01:05.98
Sara Altuna
But I really, really, really love anything by racial Rachel Kushner. um I love Elif Batuman, who wrote a book called The Idiot. And I just finished a book called The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.
01:19.02
Sara Altuna
um So I can talk about books all day. i know that’s not what we’re here for.
01:23.61
Lorie Jones
ah I know, i I’m the same way. And and that the the correspondent has come up probably three or four times recently. so
01:31.75
Sara Altuna
Oh, wow. Yeah.
01:32.54
Lorie Jones
Yes, that must be, it’s on my list. It’s under, I’m reading um Blink right now by Malcolm Gladwell, but underneath that, I’ve got the correspondent.
01:38.26
Sara Altuna
Oh, nice.
01:41.38
Lorie Jones
So maybe that’s the next one that that comes out. So um tell me a little bit about your journey.
01:44.91
Sara Altuna
Yeah. Great.
01:47.94
Lorie Jones
How did you get where you were? ah Did you start out always knowing what you wanted to be? Like, what do you do now? Tell us just a little bit about you. Yeah.
01:56.06
Sara Altuna
Yeah, absolutely. um So I’m sure as everybody who comes on the show, I feel like I’ve had a bit of an abnormal journey towards where I am right now. So today I’m the president at BASE um and BASE is a company. We have executive assistants that we pair on a fractional basis with leaders.
02:14.10
Sara Altuna
But where I started really goes back to when I was 18. um And so when I was 18, I was in my freshman year of college and I got pregnant.
02:19.48
Lorie Jones
Okay.
02:24.95
Sara Altuna
And, you know, getting pregnant at 18 is not, I think, what anybody wants or like necessarily plans for themselves. um And i grew up in a very religious household. And so to me, there wasn’t really an option of what to do except for keep the baby. And that baby now is 18 and just like finished her first year of college. She’s great. But, um you know, i I think I suddenly felt like I had thrown away my life, I guess, and that I didn’t, wasn’t going to have anything, wasn’t going to have any prospects. um
02:57.91
Sara Altuna
Fast forward a little bit, I stayed home with her while she was little. um And then I actually went back to college when I was 28 to get a degree. And I majored in art history, thinking that I would want to go into academia, if not academia, maybe law.
03:12.44
Sara Altuna
It turned out that then, just because, you know, there’s a confluence of everything, i ended up separated and needing to have a side work for myself to support myself and my kids financially.
03:14.46
Lorie Jones
Yes.
03:24.18
Sara Altuna
um And I slipped into work as an executive assistant. So… I loved it. i had never done it before. i remember when I was being interviewed, they said something about like, you know, how would you structure this deliverable? And I had to say, what is a deliverable? I don’t know what a deliverable is. Yeah.
03:43.06
Sara Altuna
um And, but I, I was really intrigued by the work. I got to work with like incredibly interesting founders and leaders who just need a little support. um I jokingly refer to myself as the COO because it really was coming in and helping them operationalize and build structure.
04:02.10
Sara Altuna
But it never felt like, okay, this is my career. I think in the back of my head, I still had this idea that I had thrown away my opportunity to ever have this big career that I could be proud of. um So at some point I moved away from the executive assistant work and I worked um at a startup in San Francisco for a little while.
04:25.14
Sara Altuna
And i was only there for about six weeks before the company basically went under. And so, you know, not great, really not great. um,
04:37.69
Sara Altuna
and Then i eventually ended up going back to being an ah executive assistant. um I went back to the company and over time um I developed some products for the company, the company base. um I ended up taking internal role and then I’ve just moved my way through there. I’ve been um in like L and d I’ve been in product. I’ve been in talent experience.
05:04.79
Sara Altuna
Most recently I was the managing director and now the president. So not really a linear path in any sense. Yeah.
05:13.00
Lorie Jones
Yeah. So when did you decide that this um this thing that you had thought was just a stopgap measure was actually your career?
05:26.55
Sara Altuna
Yeah. I think that part of it was me growing up and having and realizing that I had some stigma around the role of executive assistant. But then as I was working in that role, I was doing such interesting work and meeting such brilliant colleagues who were also working as EAs.
05:45.69
Sara Altuna
And it helped me come to appreciate the career in its own right, in a way that I think was super valuable Um, I also, in my heart on a very deep level, I’m a problem solver, like the messier the situation throw me in. It’s what I want. Let’s go. I’ve always been like that. I love a problem.
06:04.86
Sara Altuna
And really the job of an executive assistant is taking problems and solving them before they get to your executive. So there was, there was definitely like this, like, um, creativity, you know, problem solving, troubleshooting aspect to the work that I really, really resonated with. Um, and I think that’s what kept me in it for the longest was like,
06:23.32
Sara Altuna
I stopped thinking about the title and I just started thinking about the work itself. And yeah, there was probably like 30% of the work that like was pretty boring for me at least, but like 70% of it was fascinating.
06:33.05
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
06:34.87
Sara Altuna
And like, that’s a pretty good percentage at the end of the day. So yeah, I think it was just my shifting view of the role that helped me kind of develop a passion for it.
06:44.72
Lorie Jones
Yeah, kind of changing the way you were looking at it.
06:47.35
Sara Altuna
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
06:49.18
Lorie Jones
um So tell me if you kind of go back and look over your your journey and and how it’s kind of developed. Is there an investment that you’ve made in yourself where you’re like, oh my goodness, this was the, this was really smart thing. I’m so glad I did this because I wouldn’t be where I’m at today if I hadn’t.
07:11.22
Sara Altuna
Yes, I have an absolute loud yes to that. um So I had the privilege of starting to work with a career coach pretty early in my career.
07:22.03
Lorie Jones
Hmm.
07:22.14
Sara Altuna
and it completely reshaped the work way that I see work and think about work and the work environment. um I had a lot of ideas about how I should behave and what was correct and what I could say and what I couldn’t say. And I almost felt like there was this game to play to be in business. You had to play this game to get the things you wanted or just to stay ahead.
07:45.46
Sara Altuna
And working with my career coach, her name is Jules, She helped me realize like things that when you say them out loud are so obvious, but like until you say them out, you know, until until they make sense in your mind, probably aren’t. And so she taught me just kind of like that I get to ask for things. I get to advocate for myself.
08:06.39
Sara Altuna
I get to show up as myself. I don’t need to put on some like veneer. Yeah. And again, it’s like, yeah, of course, of course. But I think oftentimes when we go into the workplace, it’s like, okay, I need to create this you know new persona.
08:22.20
Sara Altuna
I need to come across a certain way. If I want this, then what are the steps that I have to go through indirectly to get there instead of just saying, hey, I want this. I would like this. What do I need to do to get here? um So she really taught me and helped me develop my voice and my self-advocacy.
08:40.15
Sara Altuna
And ah that is, i would say, the biggest reason that I am where I am in my career today. i kept on saying, raising my hand for opportunities, you know, being interested in in work beyond my role.
08:54.55
Sara Altuna
um And that allowed me to, yeah, just like show up and advocate for myself and and move further than I would have otherwise, for sure, for sure.
09:03.86
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I like that idea do of teaching us how to advocate for ourselves and how to speak up and be um be seen a little bit more.
09:12.82
Sara Altuna
Yeah. Yeah. I think especially as women, we tend to think that we, you know, stay in the lane, move ahead, do the right thing, you know, just like that, that’s, that’s what we’ve been told. Like, okay, there’s a path that we need to follow.
09:29.62
Sara Altuna
Um, and to say, i want a promotion feels like we’re stepping off the path somehow, or like, I want to do more of this or even more interestingly, I want to do less of this.
09:40.12
Sara Altuna
You know, it just doesn’t feel natural at first, but over time it becomes, you know, kind of second nature, but it really, it took me a while to learn to do it. Um, yeah.
09:52.44
Lorie Jones
And a little bit of of help from somebody on the outside maybe watching path.
09:57.53
Sara Altuna
Yeah, yeah. And I mean, she was so kind and gentle, you know, just to say, you know, okay, you would like this. Have you asked for it? And me being like, well, no, I can’t ask for it.
10:07.81
Sara Altuna
And her being like, you really can. And I just needed somebody to tell me that.
10:10.47
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
10:12.23
Sara Altuna
And I think um a lot of people I talk to or in that situation as well of like, okay, I want this, but I’m not sure how to get there. And just to ask for it is like almost never the first instinct. um So learning that has been very powerful for me and my career.
10:30.04
Lorie Jones
What is the worst advice that someone gave you? Sarah, did you, did you ever get some really bad advice? And I’m always interested in if you took the advice or didn’t.
10:42.07
Sara Altuna
Yes. So i I was um and a company that I was with for a while. um We had, i would say some pretty like problematic um people in, in leadership positions. I was junior at the time and somebody who was, you know, on the ELT was leaving. She had been my advocate and The people were like being left behind or like staying on the ELT I was nervous about.
11:14.55
Sara Altuna
I didn’t know if they trusted me. And there was like a bit of like toxic behavior coming from one of the individuals in particular. um And so when my manager left, she said, just like, Sarah, keep your head down.
11:27.58
Sara Altuna
You know, like you can do this, like just like start looking for other jobs and you know, just kind of do the thing, do the right thing, stay under the radar.
11:37.78
Sara Altuna
And i did that for a little while, but it felt so out of integrity with me and myself. I’m somebody who has a very hard time not speaking up. um and after a little while, i got to a point of being like, I need to leave this company. So almost as ah in a last ditch effort, I went to somebody on the leadership team that I knew better than the others and just said like,
12:02.23
Sara Altuna
you need to know what’s going on at the company. You need to know about like, kind of like this toxic environment. A lot of people are feeling it. And I’m unhappy and looking for other jobs. And I yeah and i just think you should know that.
12:15.61
Sara Altuna
And it led to this whole kind of massive thing.
12:15.78
Lorie Jones
right.
12:18.93
Sara Altuna
um the The manager in question ended up being let go. And we completely rebuilt the team. We rebuilt our energy. We rebuilt kind of like our our commitments to one another and our team culture.
12:31.38
Sara Altuna
and Again, it was just like, i think I think for me, the lesson was like, if I start walking down a path where I feel out of integrity or alignment with myself, that’s a pretty good red flag. And I should listen to it because i could have just kept my head down. But now i have a career that I love. I work on a team that i adore.
12:54.14
Sara Altuna
And, you know, it i it it would have been very different if I had taken the advice that I was given.
13:00.71
Lorie Jones
Yeah, yeah.
13:01.53
Sara Altuna
Yeah.
13:02.42
Lorie Jones
Sometimes it’s important to kind of go back and think about that too. And like, did I, should I take this advice? Is this advice right? And is it right for me? Because there’s a difference between, you know, good advice and good advice for you sometimes.
13:12.15
Sara Altuna
Yeah.
13:18.21
Sara Altuna
I could, yeah, I completely agree. i think, especially when you’re more junior, it can be tempting to take any advice that comes your way from somebody more senior.
13:30.89
Sara Altuna
That’s not, you know, I think, I don’t think that’s right. I think it really does have to come down to who am i What are my like core values? How do I want to act? And is it in alignment with that?
13:42.39
Sara Altuna
And if it’s not, the fact that you’re junior doesn’t really matter because you’re going to get so caught up and frustrated and frustrated. buried doing things that you don’t want to be doing or that you don’t feel good about doing.
13:54.81
Sara Altuna
So really not just taking the first piece of advice that comes along, especially when it’s from somebody more senior than you.
14:01.72
Lorie Jones
Yeah, for sure.
14:02.42
Sara Altuna
Yeah. Yeah.
14:04.66
Lorie Jones
um What about a do-over or a situation that you can kind of look back on and you’re like, oh, If i could go back and do that again, knowing what I know today, i would do it so much differently. Do you have anything like that that you can think of?
14:19.42
Sara Altuna
Yes. So this touches a little bit actually on my introduction where I said that for a little while I left and worked at a startup and then came back to being an EA. um When the career, sorry, when the company that I started working with collapsed, I was out of work for six months. I was applying everywhere. It was like right before COVID, it was impossible to get a role anywhere. And i had in my mind, i will not go back to being an executive assistant. In my mind, that was kind of like work that I had evolve evolved from. And so I needed to go and find something else.
14:55.61
Sara Altuna
And so for six months, I didn’t have a job, which I, it’s very stressful as you can imagine. I think as anybody can imagine. And i had two kids to feed and house.
15:04.18
Lorie Jones
Thank
15:07.83
Sara Altuna
And finally i got to a place where I just had to say like to myself, like, okay, in a moment of like, what at the time felt like humility. I’m going to go back to this company and work as as an executive assistant again. I was really good at that.
15:23.64
Sara Altuna
I thought that I had outgrown it, but this is, this is where I need to go to find kind of like a source of income. And i i think what I learned from it is like,
15:38.10
Sara Altuna
we sometimes have to take a step backwards to get where we eventually want to go. i think we it’s easy to our careers on like kind of a vertical slope and we’re just climbing and climbing and climbing.
15:50.82
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
15:53.24
Sara Altuna
And I had to take what for me was a relatively big step backwards to be able to change directions and get on a different trajectory. um And so I just really, really, really regret that I let my…
16:09.27
Sara Altuna
I guess, insecurity on some level about being in a role that I felt like I was overqualified for keep me from going back. I should have gone back a week after the company failed, but I went back six months after and it was a really stressful six months.
16:24.23
Sara Altuna
And it was, when I look back, it was my pride and my ego that kept me from doing that. Yeah.
16:30.33
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
16:30.73
Sara Altuna
Yeah.
16:33.56
Lorie Jones
How did you get past that?
16:38.55
Sara Altuna
I got, well, as my mom told me I had to. don’t know if anybody else can relate to that.
16:42.87
Lorie Jones
yeah Moms are so smart.
16:46.02
Sara Altuna
Moms are so smart. My mom kept on saying, you should do that. You should do that. You should do that. And I finally listened to her and reached back out to the company. And they were like, we would love to have you back, of course. And like within a week, I was earning money. and it just felt so obvious once I had done it.
17:00.44
Sara Altuna
And I just needed my mom to kind of like shake me and be like, Sarah, wake up. Like, this is this is so obviously the thing to do. so yeah, my mom, it was my mom.
17:11.80
Lorie Jones
And then you needed to move that job because it presumably wasn’t something that you were, um that you you had kind of outgrown it. and And so you needed to change it into a job that excited you and and um filled your cup, so to speak. So how did that come about?
17:29.30
Sara Altuna
Yeah. um So i was at Base, the company that i now run, and how we do selection process is like the executive assistants get to opt in to clients.
17:42.68
Sara Altuna
And then if the clients select them, then it’s a match. It has to be mutual. And I became much more kind of discerning and selective about who I would work with. So I said, never again am I going to work for somebody where it’s 40 hours a week of inbox and calendar management. That doesn’t light me up.
17:59.13
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
17:59.74
Sara Altuna
And that’s not that’s not where my passion lies. Instead, I found myself really, really excited to be in small startup environments um and working with um small coaching teams or small groups of founders where your impact is like,
18:16.18
Sara Altuna
so outsized because one more set of hands can make such a difference. And my opinion mattered and my ideas mattered and I was trusted.
18:27.96
Sara Altuna
um And that gave me a lot of confidence, but also showed me, I guess, that like my career didn’t have to be put in a box. Like I had this label, but it didn’t need to be this, this, this one thing that I had imagined it to be. um so I think I started kind of like nudging at the corners of the box over and over and over again until i found myself in roles that I really loved with clients that I really loved. And when i ended up, um,
19:01.59
Sara Altuna
taking a role with the, um with based on kind of on the internal corporate side, i sat on a Zoom call with one of the clients I worked with and we cried for 30 minutes that I was leaving because I loved her so much and I loved the work so much and I knew how big of an impact I had made in her life and she was so grateful for me.
19:21.27
Sara Altuna
So it wasn’t, it wasn’t actually an easy decision after all to leave it, even though I had had so much kind of apprehension and hesitation about going back to it. But it, Yeah.
19:32.28
Lorie Jones
So if you could high five yourself for really, for one great, really good financial decision, what would that be?
19:44.31
Sara Altuna
um it would be not going to graduate school, not going to law school. So that’s that’s personal to me. I’m not giving advice to anybody else. But for me, I knew that law school was something that I could do and that would move my career forward.
19:54.26
Lorie Jones
Right.
20:02.62
Sara Altuna
I you know ah while i was… um An undergrad still finishing up my undergrad. I took the LSAT. I scored highly on it. I got into a bunch of schools. And it was very much like me doing the thing that in my mind I thought I needed to do because I wasn’t sure what else there was.
20:20.47
Sara Altuna
And, you know, I would have taken on all of this debt um to have a career that i didn’t ultimately love. So, I’m really glad that I didn’t do that.
20:31.80
Sara Altuna
And I keep on needing to remind myself of that as I consider, do I want to get an MBA? I don’t have an MBA. So sometimes I’m like, oh, do I want to go get an MBA? And I need to be like, no, sorry, you don’t need to get an MBA.
20:42.83
Sara Altuna
Remember the lesson you’ve learned. You have a job that you love. Why shake things up um by paying for like a very expensive additional degree? Yeah.
20:52.25
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that is interesting because I i love education and I love learning. But sometimes you do have to remember that there’s a return on investment involved in it.
21:03.19
Sara Altuna
Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. And I think if you have a dream and a passion and graduate school is a stepping stone towards that, absolutely. Right. But if you are kind of like, oh, maybe I should do this, maybe it’s the right thing, then really you should be weighing the cost of like, okay, what is the price to go here? what, is you know, for something that I’m not in love with and not like desperate to do.
21:27.32
Sara Altuna
So, yeah, grateful that I didn’t do that and reminding myself about it often to not go back to a business school.
21:36.34
Lorie Jones
So, Sarah, what scared you the most when you first started out on your journey? What was what was scary and does it still scare you today?
21:45.82
Sara Altuna
Yeah, so… so I, you know, i I was out of the workforce for most of my twenty s And then, you know, I did little things. I had like a little company that I owned. I worked in coffee shops. I did…
22:00.70
Sara Altuna
small things on the side. But then when when I became an EA and kind of stepped more into the corporate world, I felt overwhelmed by the amount of things I knew I didn’t know. And so there was language, like like I mentioned, the deliverable. I don’t know what a deliverable is. There was all of this terminology and all of these best practices.
22:19.86
Sara Altuna
And I felt there, I felt very much like I would never catch up, that that I had given up a decade of my life and that it was going to be impossible to get to a place where I felt comfortable and confident um because I would always feel a little bit on the outside.
22:35.19
Sara Altuna
I think we can now be like, okay, imposter syndrome, like we have a name for that.
22:37.88
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah.
22:39.19
Sara Altuna
But, but at the time it just felt very overwhelming. um Like the learning curve seemed like it was going to be really, really steep. And It doesn’t still scare me in the same way, but it does creep up on me sometimes. So, um you know, if I receive a promotion, there’s a tiny little voice in my head saying, do you know the things you need to know to be here? What is the learning curve?
23:08.09
Sara Altuna
Are you the right person for this? um You know, and so I have to silence that voice. Yeah. But I’ve, you know, it’s happened enough now that I’ve known to so silence it and go on to success. So, it you know, there’s been some positive affirmation on silencing that voice, but it’s still there. it really is.
23:27.80
Lorie Jones
Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s weird how I was just talking to someone the other day who was so, so successful. And she says she still has that little voice. And I’m like, I thought that went away after a certain point. Like I figured that I guess it just doesn’t, huh?
23:42.33
Sara Altuna
I don’t think it does. I think it’s, I think, and especially for women, I think that we,
23:50.07
Sara Altuna
you know, tend to feel like we don’t belong in the room um always. And, you know, don’t know whether our contributions are good enough or whether the work we’re doing is good enough, um whether the question we’re asking is smart enough. And,
24:11.19
Sara Altuna
I think that can really feel a little bit oppressive. um But then to go back and say like, okay, I know how to learn things. I’m a fast learner. I’m a passionate learner. Like I’m going to be okay. Like I can do this. i can do this. I can do this. Yeah.
24:29.34
Lorie Jones
And is it just the pep talk you gave yourself that got you through that imposter syndrome? Or is there other techniques or tricks that you used?
24:37.72
Sara Altuna
Yeah, I mean, i would say I started talking to more people about it, honestly. and when the CEO of my company said to me, Sarah, I feel that way some days as well. Everybody thinks I know everything and I don’t know everything. i was like, okay, okay, okay, okay. People at every stage are feeling this. And I think coming to terms with that was helpful for me to normalize what I was feeling and then ignore it. um And so over you know a series of conversations, asking people like,
25:07.06
Sara Altuna
do you feel, you know, do you feel like you’re qualified for your role, like fully qualified? And nobody says yes. It’s like, everybody’s like, I’m making this up a little bit. um And I mean, some professions, I hope they’re not making it up a little bit like the medical field, but you know, with, with these kind of like knowledge worker jobs, it’s like you, a lot of it is just like, you’re hired into the role to be yourself and for your judgment.
25:18.57
Lorie Jones
on the
25:32.38
Sara Altuna
um, And that’s not the same as learning, you know, 18 facts about what it means to be the head of product um necessarily.
25:44.39
Lorie Jones
I love that. What, um what about any unique challenges as you kind of went along your journey? Were there any unique challenges because you were a woman?
25:56.02
Sara Altuna
Well, the ability to get pregnant at 18 was certainly one of them that I think is very highly correlated with being a woman. um Beyond that, I think i the startup that I worked at um was male led, male run.
26:15.64
Sara Altuna
And i i I, was only there for six weeks, but I’m very aware that I didn’t develop my voice and I didn’t, I didn’t feel like but there was something about going to a male manager for whatever reason that felt scarier maybe than going to a female manager. um i now work at a company where it’s it’s like a women-owned, women-led company.
26:42.62
Sara Altuna
And, you know, I don’t feel any of that unease. And so I think there was something about just like the gender dynamic and and And, you know, I’m sure it was self-imposed as well, right? Like it it was me getting into my head about, again, what was right, what was supposed to happen in the workplace.
27:00.06
Sara Altuna
um And I will say this is before I started working with my amazing career coach, where I realized like, oh, just say the thing, just say the thing.
27:04.33
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
27:07.10
Sara Altuna
um But I think… I also will note, like I did, you know, I went back to college while my kids were five and seven. So I graduated when they were like in middle school and just balancing the work um and the schoolwork was something I think that like I took on as a mom and I took on as a woman.
27:32.82
Sara Altuna
that I’m grateful for in hindsight. It makes me very flexible and adaptable. And I can, well, I think I can multitask. People who know me don’t think I can multitask. But um it it it definitely it it definitely created like a steeper hill to climb. And I’m so happy for that hill.
27:54.97
Sara Altuna
Yeah.
27:55.89
Lorie Jones
you learn some things along the way.
27:58.23
Sara Altuna
Yeah, yeah. I think if you just have an easy journey the whole time, then I don’t know, again, I’m somebody who often says i thrive in adversity. So give me a problem.
28:11.64
Sara Altuna
i want to learn from it. I want to conquer it. um And I think that when things are easy, it’s easy to kind of just stop learning as many lessons, right? And just be kind of complacent and, oh, I’m in a good place.
28:25.91
Sara Altuna
I don’t need to do a ton of introspection. yeah, hard things make us… don’t know, more
28:35.60
Lorie Jones
yeah one of my um one of my main values is we can do hard things it talks about you know life throwing us curveballs and how we how we can rise to the challenge and and i believe that to the very depths of my soul is that you can do hard things so
28:50.28
Sara Altuna
Yeah.
28:53.62
Sara Altuna
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think as well, the more you do hard things, the more you know about yourself and how strong you are. And so when the next challenge comes up, you’re you’re rebuilding your sense of self as well. Like, I can do hard things. I can do hard things. And yeah it’s just Again, I think a lot of these things are a lesson that you learn through going through them, but then making sure you remember to kind of internalize that learning so that it helps you a little bit further down the road when you might need to access that again.
29:32.28
Lorie Jones
yeah um what is the thing Sarah that you are most proud of
29:33.33
Sara Altuna
Yeah.
29:42.52
Sara Altuna
Okay, I have like a little bit of a spicy take, but we’re not going to go super deep into that. And then we’re just go to do the more mild one. So I would say my like hot take, spicy take is getting a divorce. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
29:52.73
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
29:56.66
Sara Altuna
And the most right thing as well in hindsight that I’ve ever done in my life. But we wouldn’t spend a bunch of time there. I would say um the the the more kind of like mild take is just…
30:10.01
Sara Altuna
continuing to put myself out there, continuing to ask for things, not believing that there’s a ceiling, because it’s allowed me to grow much more, like much further in my career than I would have otherwise. um And I think, you know, sometimes when we have these limiting beliefs, it’s hard to continue to put yourself out there, to raise your hand for new opportunities,
30:39.00
Sara Altuna
And i think sometimes it’s like, okay, well, I’ve got to this level, you know, like I’m a senior manager of this. I did it. And, but I continued putting myself out there. I wanted more. i was ambitious and I’m really proud of myself for that. Like, I’m really proud that I now am in a role that I absolutely adore.
30:57.85
Sara Altuna
Um, and that I wouldn’t have had if i wasn’t putting myself out there making myself kind of visible, even when I wasn’t sure, um Yeah, that’s, yeah, pretty.
31:09.27
Sara Altuna
And then, of course, my two beautiful daughters. I’m very proud of them as well.
31:12.82
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
31:14.87
Sara Altuna
Yeah.
31:15.84
Lorie Jones
Any advice for a young lady who’s kind of just starting down this path that you’re successful at that might help her be successful like you?
31:24.28
Sara Altuna
Yeah, so… um I have three things that I always talk to people about when they’re, you know, kind of exploring their career opportunities. um the The first thing I talk about is curiosity.
31:39.77
Sara Altuna
Like, be curious. Ask the question that nobody’s asking. Like, wonder why things are the way that they are, look at the status quo and think about how it could be improved.
31:53.56
Sara Altuna
That kind of mindset, I think, is everything. It opens up so many doors just to be the person in the room asking the hard question. It can feel really scary.
32:06.78
Sara Altuna
And it is really scary, but but it’s just… When you’re coming at it from a place of good intention, so you’re showing curiosity out of like kind of commitment to your company, to your role, wanting to make things better. So you’re asking a question that you genuinely think might be hampering like how the team is performing or the company is performing.
32:32.34
Sara Altuna
Ask, being curious it is, I think, such a great way to like show your value, show your creative thinking and be visible. I think, you know, visibility is, is a huge thing when you’re kind of climbing through your career.
32:48.57
Sara Altuna
The, the second, the second um biggest kind of thing that I encourage people to look for is passion.
32:48.57
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
32:57.40
Sara Altuna
So like, but just notice when you love doing something. it It’s not look at your work day and think about when you’re kind of in flow, when the time is passing,
33:11.80
Sara Altuna
And then going back to kind of like the self-advocacy, find ways to put more of that into your role. So, you know, if you if you realize like, I’m really passionate about, don’t writing newsletters, let’s say, then, okay, how can you be doing more of that? How can you be putting out yourself out there more? How can you have more ideas that gets you in that space a little bit more?
33:33.66
Sara Altuna
And i think just really listening to where your energy lies and where your passion is,
33:43.29
Sara Altuna
is is really going to guide you down the right path ultimately. um and then the third piece of advice, and this one will not be a surprise since I’ve talked about it a few times already, but just ask. Like, the worst thing that happens is somebody says no to you, but like make the ask.
34:01.03
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
34:01.21
Sara Altuna
If you need or want something, you know, yeah, somebody might say no. Okay. But like, they might say yes, and it’s never going to be a yes unless you ask. And so, you know, you don’t need to play the games. You don’t need to go through kind of like this roundabout way. Just make the ask and see whether you can get something. Ask to do more of what you love. Ask to do less of what you do don’t love. And, you know, I think really shape shape the role that you want to have and and believe that you have that ability.
34:36.73
Sara Altuna
Yeah, would be my final piece of advice.
34:38.90
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I like that idea of of believing in yourself, believing that you can make a difference, that that you can ask, that you can take on those new responsibilities.
34:51.58
Lorie Jones
I think part of that is is making the ask, and part of it is the belief that you you make a difference, like that you can be someone more than you see yourself as.
35:04.31
Sara Altuna
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think that’s definitely true. And, you know, again, it’s like, don’t impose a ceiling that’s too low on yourself. Like, raise the roof, raise the roof, raise the roof, like, keep going, you know, and as much as you want to, right?
35:14.20
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
35:20.23
Sara Altuna
Like, and as well, I think… just thinking about like jobs and roles as not being like this square box that you have to fit in. It’s like, how can you shape the role to really bring out the things that you are excellent at?
35:37.08
Sara Altuna
Because that’s, that’s a, what you’re going to enjoy the most and be like what you’re going be the most noticed for. So really, i think paying attention to like, what am I enjoying? What do I love doing? What do I dread? What do I put off?
35:50.48
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
35:50.65
Sara Altuna
will tell you a lot about ultimately, you know, where you want to be. And probably you’re not going to get like the perfect thing that’s a hundred percent compatible with what you want to be doing the next day. But at least you can, you know, okay, this is kind of where I want to be working towards. This is how do I reverse engineer getting to this place where that’s what I’m doing?
36:09.27
Sara Altuna
um Just, yeah, like thinking outside the box and like rejecting the notion of like a square box for a given role.
36:17.11
Lorie Jones
I love it. I went to a um symposium once and somebody was giving a talk and they said the idea of thinking outside of the box. They said, well, what if you ask the the question? What if you could?
36:30.90
Lorie Jones
What if you did? You know, because there’s always i run into them every day, all day long. Well, no, you can’t do it. No, we don’t do it that way. No, you can’t do it this way. No, you can’t do that. And and he said, just turn that question and say, okay, we can’t.
36:46.39
Lorie Jones
But what if we could? What would that look like? And I think that’s the idea of kind of thinking a little bit outside of the box and start thinking about, well, I can’t make this job into anything that I want, but what if I could?
36:49.91
Sara Altuna
Yeah.
37:00.25
Lorie Jones
What would that look like? if and And you take that automatic stop out of your way and start thinking on a bigger scale.
37:09.72
Sara Altuna
Yeah, and I think that that’s also just like a really useful framework to apply towards like being a problem solver. Instead of saying, this won’t work because of this,
37:21.11
Sara Altuna
okay, let’s imagine an ideal world where anything could happen. What would happen?
37:26.85
Lorie Jones
Why not?
37:27.35
Sara Altuna
And then you start stripping back a little bit. And oftentimes the the delta between it can’t happen and some of it can happen is like much wider and much more accessible than you think it’s going to be.
37:39.46
Sara Altuna
um So yeah, asking, again, sharing curiosity and… asking why not and, and what im what, you know, but what small things.
37:46.84
Lorie Jones
why not
37:50.39
Sara Altuna
And I think that just like builds.
37:52.86
Lorie Jones
Yeah, love that.
37:53.51
Sara Altuna
Yeah.
37:53.55
Lorie Jones
Well, thank you so, so much time for your time today, Sarah. I’ve really appreciated this conversation. if i have a young lady who wants to get in touch with you, how does she do that?
38:03.70
Sara Altuna
Yes, absolutely. um You can find me on LinkedIn, Sarah Altoona, and I’m pretty responsive there. i also love talking to people early in their career. So reach out to me. I’m always up for a quick 15 minute call. um That’s one of the things that brings me joy in life is talking with people earlier in their career, especially women. So yeah, I’d love to connect.
38:26.39
Lorie Jones
Perfect. That sounds great. um Thank you so, so much for all that you’ve taught us and all that we’ve learned. I appreciate it.
38:33.34
Sara Altuna
Thank you for having me. This was a pleasure.