By Steven Hoffman

Staff Writer

Who would you become if you dared to live your dreams?

Joyce Dungee Proctor is interested in finding out. Not only that, she can help you become that person who lives your dreams by achieving your personal and professional goals.

Joyce, a resident of Townsend, is the founder of Seminars by Joyce—The Total You, Inc. She has been providing professional services in career consulting and executive coaching for more than 20 years, and several times a month she conducts seminars and workshops focusing on how individuals can elevate both their personal and professional lives to new heights.

“The journey of my own life led me to this career—it's my passion and my purpose,” Joyce explained during an interview in late July. She admits that she was a shy person growing up, and would not have imagined herself  becoming in demand as a professional speaker.

That changed as she grew in her own career and faith. 

“I was able to overcome the shyness because I worked in the service industry,” Joyce explained.

She first discovered that she had an ability to inspire and motivate groups of people while she was working as a district manager for Casual Corner and had to do a Dress for Success seminar.

As she became increasingly comfortable honing her message for that initial seminar, which she delivered to various groups, it gave her the opportunity to book other speaking engagements, among them a talk in front of the International Association of Administrative Professionals. Before long, she was regularly conducting workshops for many of Delaware’s Fortune 500 companies, colleges, and non-profit organizations, and serving as the keynote speaker at job fairs and career transition programs throughout Delaware and neighboring states.

During her work with some of these larger companies, she inspired and coached managers and team members in a variety of industries, and earned a reputation as the “career transformation coach.” She was able to help a lot of people make critical decisions about their futures. Joyce said that she discovered both a passion and purpose for supporting, inspiring, and coaching people to succeed.

As she met with and talked to more men and women, and learned about the problems and challenges that they were facing in their careers, she developed some very precise ideas about what people needed to do to meet their career objectives and live the lives that they wanted. After Joyce coached thousands of individuals on their careers, she drew upon her diverse experiences to create Take the Limits off Career Services, a powerful new approach to career management. She utilizes a coaching formula known as the Ultimate Career Coaching method, which has been featured on CNN and NBC, and in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

Take the Limits off Career Services works directly with executives and professionals, coaching and advising employees to take charge of their careers by creating work that they love while also earning what they deserve. She collected some of her ideas about best practices in a book, “Take the Limits Off: Nine Ways to Stop Talking and Start Doing.” The book encapsulates some of the lessons that Joyce learned about leadership, management, sales, and human resources roles during her career, including some of her favorite nuggets that she frequently shares during her talks.

She encourages everyone to take control of their own careers and not to rely on the company or the managers to do so.

 “I always tell people that they are in charge of managing their own careers,” she said.

It all begins, she said, by taking the limits off yourself.  

“We have self-imposed fears that we set on ourselves,” she explained. “I encourage people to act anyway, to continue to move forward.” Joyce encourages everyone to be prepared with an updated job-seekers toolkit that will help them remain active in looking for the next promotion or job opportunity.

“You may have four or five careers in your lifetime,” Joyce explained.

She encourages everyone to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to career planning. There are a number of things that everyone can do to remain proactive. At the top of the list, she said, is networking—people always need to be plugged in with other professionals to succeed at the current job and to identify future opportunities.

“You must stay connected to people,” she explained.

It’s also critically important for people to never stop learning, to continually stay informed about the latest information and trends in a given industry. Attending workshops or pursuing additional certifications can be helpful. It’s also important to not be intimidated by technology because the most advanced technology can be useful for many professional endeavors and will look good to a potential employer.

Joyce is about to release a new book titled “The Break-Through Book: A Personal Writing Tool for Creating The Life that you Want.”

In the effort to continue to pursue the life that she wants, Joyce has added breast cancer awareness to her platform. It is a cause that is near and dear to her heart. She wants to continue to utilize her talents, gifts, and influence so that she can make a difference in the lives of others.