Beth Reacher, aka The Career Stylist, is a life and career coach who coaches women who feel trapped in a job that doesn’t quite fit and want to style a career they will love on their terms.

Meet the woman who can help you be who you are meant to be.

TLW: The Career Stylist; does it mean you help people design their careers?

Beth Reacher: I coach women to ‘style’ a career they will love on their terms, rather than forcing themselves into one job that doesn’t quite fit! It’s about embracing an open minded, 21st century approach to making a living.

TLW: Does the concept of having a ‘career’ still apply in 2012?

BR: I think the concept of what makes up a ‘career’ is changing. In that a career is the path we take through life to make a living, it will still exist. However, people are adapting to the evolving market place and being more open minded in how they make their money. For example, back in my parent’s day a chosen career path was for life and consisted of a series of 9-5 ‘jobs’. Now with the power of technology more people are working from home basing themselves anywhere in the world they choose. Due to the unstable economy and rise in small businesses, there is an increasing demand for project based/ contract work as opposed to secure, permanent roles. Many people are tapping into other money-making powers the internet brings such as affiliate marketing opportunities.

The crux of it is that rather than relying on an employer to give us a salary, we will need to take our financial destiny into our own hands and create a business and asset around US.

TLW: What is the number one problem people face in their careers?

BR: It really depends on what stage people are at in their careers. For example, the problems graduates face are different to say what more seasoned professionals tackle with. In terms of the women I coach, I would say the no.1 problem is not being totally happy of fulfilled in their career but not feeling they can change due to financial reasons. Many people pursue careers driven solely by the money but then once they’re towards the top ranks of their career they realize ‘there must be more to life than this’ but although they would love to do something else, don’t feel they can take a pay cut. Fear surrounds this also, it’s easier to stay where you’re comfortable and know the ropes inside out, even if it does not make you entirely happy.

TLW: What piece of advice would you have for young professionals and entrepreneurs who want to pursue their passions and make money?

BR: Follow your passion, and the money will come. It may take longer as very often, the careers that people feel more passionate about are not always well paying to start of with. However, if you cast aside your passion to pursue something purely for the money, you may end up feeling really stuck ten years down the line. It’s hard to take a pay cut then when you’re tied into a mortgage and have a family. Invest your heart and soul into what brings you alive, stick firm to your purpose and the rewards will come and never let the thoughts and opinions of others steer you away from your authentic path. If you do need to get another job to pay the bills then do it as your 9-5 means to an end, but never at the cost of your passion. Keep working on the dream in the spare time and after work and in the words of Winston Churchill “ never never never give up”

TLW: What’s your story and how did you become a coach?

BR: I graduated from Southampton university with a degree in English literature and never really knew what I wanted to do with my life. I got into media sales and then went on to work in corporate recruitment. Although I did very well and had all the trappings of professional ‘success’ I knew in my heart it wasn’t my path. I took some time out travelling and worked as an interim recruiter for a FTSE 100 Company before deciding to train to become a coach with the UK’s leading training provider, The Coaching Academy. The plan was to always go back into the recruitment world and build my coaching business on the side but then I thought, why wait? What am I putting this off for? It’s now or never. Slowly but surely I built a healthy number of paying coaching clients. I now coach private clients whilst working on building an online coaching offering where I shall be taking clients through an interactive online ‘bootcamp’, coaching them to style a career they will love on their terms in 28 days. Coaching my clients towards discovering their real authentic power and supporting them to go on and make powerful changes in their careers and lives is simply magical.

Beth Reacher's free e-guide, How To Shape A Career/ Biz You Will Love, is available for download on her website: www.thecareerstylist.com

In his home country, Morocco, Reda El Ourouba is followed by young people immersed in Arab current affairs and eager for what they call: change. I find El Ourouba an interesting web character whose tweets and status updates never lack creativity. Opening up 2012, I ask Reda 5 questions.

Safaa NHAIRY: 2011 was a year full of events in the Arab world. How would you describe this year?
Reda El Ourouba: As you said many events happened in 2011; Dictators run away, others are in jail, and others dead. Bin Laden was captured and killed, and Cesaria Evora died and many other surprising events occur.
In Morocco we have made a new constitution with much more power for the President of our Government and we had our youth movement which is #feb20.
There is no doubt that 2011 was the year of “Change”. This is the first time we really feel it in our daily life. Now we know by real proof that inventing new ways of communication is inventing new future.
(Editor’s note: Cesaria Evora was a singer from Cape Verde who died in December 2011.)

What’s the position of the Moroccan youth on what has happened in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen?
Although I represent a part of it, I would not speak on behalf of the Moroccan youth, because I am not officially a youth spokesman. However, I believe that the changes around us are exiting everybody and young Moroccans in particular realize that they are in the focal point of all of the energy leading to it.
Politicians are now starting to give special care for their youth, they promise new solutions, new ways for promoting youth and for offering them better life. And this is part of the solution.
So in my opinion, Moroccan youth can only support such changes and work hard for it. No other choice is possible.

How is Morocco an ‘exception’ in terms of the Arab Spring and has the latter had any impact on the Moroccan society?
The Moroccan exception started long time ago, when the Ottoman Empire expansion was stopped at the Moroccan borders. In more recent history, Morocco has made the choice of liberalism while the neighbors made the choice of communism. Morocco preferred to focus on agriculture while others focused on heavy industry, Morocco kept very good relationship with former colonial countries while the others went for frontal conflicts. The present shows that all these strategic decisions were good visionary ones.
This time also, Morocco kept its exception by choosing to make a smooth evolution towards a much better political landscape instead of imitating a bloody revolution. This is the Moroccan way, our own choice, we like it like that and we assume it. Of course the “Arab spring” had an impact on the Moroccan inner movements, but the result was something different that respects our culture, our vision and our way of doing: “The Moroccan way”.

The PJD (Parti de la Justice et du Développement/Justice and Development Party) won the November legislative elections in Morocco for the first time in its history. What does this mean to Morocco?
PJD winning the election means the end of the government control on the elections in our country. It means also that the democracy had the last word; even if I do not support PJD, I do believe that this is the majority choice and I respect it. This is how democracy works.
It is the direct consequence of the other political parties failure to mobilize their people and propose something more exciting than what PJD promoted in front of the Moroccans. In my opinion this is a starting point for another way of doing politics in Morocco. A new era that is characterized by transparency, dynamisms and creativity for the sake of Moroccan people have begun.

You are a very active blogger and speak on behalf of the Moroccan web community. How do you manage to keep your profiles and pages updated when you have another full-time job?
I found the way to have more than 24 hours a day I like what I do. I do it with passion and love and this might be the secret.