Fran Hauser’s New Workbook Can Help You Build A Career You Love. Here’s How.

It can be disheartening to feel the love you’ve had for your career beginning to dwindle away, and when the majority of your days are spent working a job you hate, feelings of stress and unhappiness can quickly take a toll on your emotional and psychological well-being. Unfortunately, many women resign themselves to continue working jobs they no longer love out of convenience or even fear

However, Fran Hauser, former president of Time Inc. Digital, has made it her mission to help women fall in love with their careers through her new guided workbook, Embrace the Work, Love Your Career. Over the course of her career, Hauser has worked in various organizations from startups to Fortune 500 companies holding a wide range of positions from financial to creative roles. Throughout her career, she noticed a common thread that was her love of leading and mentoring women using the endless array of strategies, exercises and tools she’s developed through her years of expertise. After successfully serving as the President of Digital for Time Inc., Hauser decided to leave corporate America in 2014 to take on a more meaningful task of leveling the playing field for women.

As she continued to support women over the years through angel investing, writing and speaking, Hauser soon realized that women's needs were shifting as their relationships with their careers began to suffer. The emergence of COVID-19 was drastically altering the workforce leaving many to take a hard look at their career paths as their priorities changed. As the pandemic upturned the workforce, it inevitably left women struggling in their careers, even more desperate for the very resources Hauser sought out to provide them with.

“The idea for the book actually came to me during the pandemic when I noticed that so many of my friends and colleagues were struggling. They were questioning their purpose, their career path, and, on a more tactical level, their day-to-day work. They weren’t alone—many of us are going through an existential crisis right now and are questioning our life choices.”

It became increasingly evident that women are no longer finding joy in their careers. Stepping fully into her roles as a mentor and leader, Hauser decided to tap into her years of resources and experience to create a one-of-a-kind, guided workbook that offers not only time-tested strategies and accessible advice, but also creative prompts and thoughtful exercises to help women hone in on what truly matters, set necessary boundaries and ultimately realize their full potential.

Hauser knew better than most how easy it is for women to get stuck in autopilot mode, never taking the time to reflect on what is and isn’t working in their careers and in their lives overall. For Hauser, being open and honest with yourself about what you want and setting necessary boundaries are critical steps that will set you on the path to building the career you want and love. However, women often struggle with knowing when and how to say “No” to what is no longer serving them. To better understand this issue in order to help women overcome it, Hauser sent out a quick survey to three hundred professional women in her network to ask women why they are not saying “No” to what they knew they no longer wanted out of their careers.

“The response was overwhelming—seventy-five women answered within two hours. The reasons survey respondents gave for saying “Yes” when they should have said “I wish I could” were many, including people pleasing, FOMO, and a constant need to prove themselves.”

As a mentor, Hauser knew that the first step towards creating a life you love is having the awareness to understand why you have a hard time saying “No” and then checking in with yourself before you say, “Yes.” One of the best ways to develop that sense of awareness is for women to take the time to reset and do some reflection in order to better understand what it is they want and how they can work towards achieving it. To make the process easier, Hauser intentionally curated each chapter of her book to begin with practical advice, prompts and exercises to help women create a career plan before ending off each chapter with opportunities for reflection through meditations and coloring breaks.

In addition to designing a career plan, the author guides women through topics of building a dream team, knowing your value and creating time and space for the important, yet challenging, work that follows every call to action.

“Over the course of my career, I’ve learned that even the smallest steps can move you in the right direction. Taking action is a guiding principle of the book, and readers will walk away with a personal career action plan.”

For Hauser, the fundamental premise of her book is that in order to love your career, you must first embrace the work. That means setting your intentions and putting the time aside to do both the internal and external work needed to help you establish a career plan that can bridge the gap between your dreams and reality.