Media

Published articles, interviews and more

View my published media, including speaking engagements and podcasts.

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Career Focus

Career Focus explores personal values, living with purpose, and having choices in how we live today. What I call “Coaching 101.”

Life fully loved

Enjoying a Life fully loved means developing personally and professionally. That’s what these topics discuss.

Time Management

Time Management examines setting priorities, establishing boundaries, developing SMART goals, dealing with setbacks, and ensuring follow-through.

Instructional

Shedding Rigidity in HR

Check out my presentation at the Masonic Temple for 200+ HR folks at the most recent DisruptHR event in Toronto.

Instructional

My Podcast: Life Fully Loved – Career Advice

Follow my life fully loved podcast! New episodes air weekly. Spread the word, leave a review, and/or share some topics you’d like to hear more about.

Career Focus

Podcast: Who are You?

Interview by Jacquie Doucette with Laura Barker from the Beyond Retirement podcast.

Career Focus

Sociology Grad Seeks Advice on Career Path

Trying to figure out your career path? Read my advice in this article. Try clarifying which parts of your program you enjoyed most. Then, turn inward to identify your values. From there, consider the type of environment in which you want to work. Finally, prioritize as needed based on what’s important to you right now.

Time Management

13 Tips on How to Plan Your Career Growth and Development

Learn ways to grow your career over the short and long term. My recommendation? Ask for advice, not feedback.

Instructional

An Introvert’s Guide to Networking

Try replacing the word “networking” with “meeting new people.” Connection is a basic human need. Introverts or extroverts, we are all social animals who function best in groups. Consider networking as just a formalized way of building groups, and picture your network like your own personal community.

From the beginning, Laura put me at ease, creating a safe, open space for me to talk and share freely without fear of judgement. I loved the variety of approaches she used depending on the topic we were working on and it was fun being able to try out things I wouldn’t have considered before! With Laura’s coaching, I substantially grew my confidence in the workplace, overcame fears, dealt with issues I’d been carrying around for many years and, most importantly, learned to value myself and define a path forward into the future.
AG

Coaching sessions with Laura gave me new perspectives on how to process specific feelings and situations in life. She showed me how to sit with my emotions, acknowledge them, and then use visualization strategies to move through them. I now feel more confident and in control of how I choose to walk through life.
CP

Laura is an incredibly intuitive, positive and caring coach. Her techniques helped me recognize both my strengths and areas I might want to explore as I embark on the next chapter of my career. The exercises she employed were instrumental in providing self perspective and challenging my frames of reference.
LE

Laura is a natural coach. Her probing and compassionate questions helped me learn about myself: my value system, interests, goals and strengths.
LM

Coaching is life changing. It pushes you outside your comfort zone and challenges your perspectives. It is highly motivating and the exercises and techniques used are both fun and informative. I think the main benefits of coaching are to see yourself, others and the world more clearly. I think coaching is valuable to anyone regardless of where you are in your life or career.
LE

Laura is very patient. She took the time to understand what was causing me to be stuck where I am today and help me build a better vision so I can continue to grow.
MM

You have to be open minded in order to grow. The coaching that Laura gave me opened my eyes to what and how I was doing things and allowed me to see the bigger picture. I am not done yet but I already see the changes in my everyday life.
MM

I think Laura’s coaching was what I had been waiting for. Laura was so approachable, kind, and open. Her willingness to help and support made a difference for me. I found in her coaching new strategies, ideas, and perspectives that I could incorporate into my goals and objectives that I didn’t see before.
MO