A Special Offer: Working on Purpose® Live Online Workshop

I have spent forty years working with people in career transition, and over that time I’ve developed a methodology that I’m told genuinely speaks to them. This July, I’d like to make it more widely available — and the best way I’ve found to do that is by having practitioners experience it firsthand.

I’m reserving twenty complimentary seats in the Working on Purpose® Live Online Workshop for career practitioners — one per agency, with limited exceptions for larger organizations. I would like you to know what the experience feels like before deciding whether it’s right for your clients. This offer is intended for career practitioners who have the ability to refer clients to the workshops we will be delivering, on a fee for service basis, starting in September. Please not that this July workshop is not a train-the-trainer program.

The Working on Purpose® Approach

The workshop evolved from the original Implicit Career Search — a methodology I developed over decades, beginning in collaboration with Dr. Will Schutz and informed by invaluable feedback from over 600 clients in the first four years of development. It starts with a deceptively simple shift: instead of asking clients what they want to get from the job market, we ask them what they want to give to their community. The enthusiastic responses we get to this question were not expected when I first started asking it.

In my experience this concept reaches even the most reluctant clients — those who felt forced to attend. It is grounded in two principles that have held true across forty years of practice: first, that everyone has something unique to contribute; and second, that everyone — no matter how they are showing up in the moment — desperately wants to make that contribution. Once people connect with that, they become motivated to overcome whatever is in the way. They make plans. They take entry-level positions they might have dismissed. And some return to work they thought they’d left behind for good.

What the Five Days Look Like

The workshop runs live, online, across five mornings — each a two-hour session co-facilitated by Denise Reimer and me. We are available to participants an hour before and after every session. Participants are also provided with a one-hour follow-up session the following week to help them consolidate their plans. Each morning corresponds to one stage of the Working on Purpose® framework.

Module 1: Take Charge

Most people arrive at career planning having absorbed a story about themselves — from employers, from family, from earlier chapters of their working life — that has quietly narrowed what they think is possible. Take Charge helps participants recognize that they have more choice than they’ve been giving themselves credit for. It is the ground everything else is built on.

Module 2: Get Unstuck

The second morning goes deeper into what is actually in the way. For most people it is not a lack of options or information.  It is misguided beliefs, defensive behaviours, and unhelpful labels they have accumulated over time and come to accept as true. Get Unstuck is the work of identifying and moving past those barriers so participants can see themselves and their situation more clearly.

Module 3: Get Real

With obstacles cleared, participants can begin to reconnect with the person underneath the not-so-authentic characteristics we all develop over time. Get Real is where that honest self-knowledge takes shape. Participants write a Personal Mission Statement describing the person they now intend to be and how they will relate to different aspects of their lives: relationships, money, leisure activities and, yes, work. I have found it helpful to decide who we are going to be prior to deciding what we are going to do.

Module 4: Get Purpose

The heart of the workshop. Drawing on everything the previous three mornings have revealed, participants write their Work Purpose Statement. This is a clear, personal articulation of what they intend to contribute and the kind of work that will allow them to do it. For many people this is the first time they’ve put that into words. It tends to be a significant moment — not a sudden transformation, but the beginning of a direction they can move toward, one basic step at a time.

Module 5: Get Work

The final morning turns purpose into a practical plan for moving forward. Participants identify the most realistic path from where they are now to where they want to be. That path usually takes one of three forms:

1. A seed job — often entry-level or previous work they may have set aside — that offers a practical starting point and allows purpose to grow into meaningful, sustainable, contributive work over time.
2. Training — whether a specific skill or broader college study — that opens the door to their intended contribution.
3. An aligned job they can pursue now that connects directly to their identified purpose.

We also introduce the Purpose Pathways Toolkit, which suggests careers aligned with participants’ purposes as well as seed jobs that build relevant skills. The toolkit is updated regularly to reflect current opportunities. Most participants leave with a clear sense of their path and the next steps to take. A follow-up one-on-one call is available the following week for anyone who wants to further refine their plan.

Program Outcomes

Our most recent workshop contract in Alberta produced strong results across participation, completion, and employment outcomes:

• 358 people participated in the program.
• 278 participants completed the full program.
• Participants were referred by 38 agencies.
• Of those who completed the program, 47% moved into employment or self-employment directly connected to their identified contribution. That is nearly five times the contracted target. In addition, 20% found seed jobs and 16% enrolled in further training.
• Every follow-up respondent said they would recommend the program.
• Across multiple studies and sectors, integrating this approach into employment training has improved key outcomes by an average of 300%.

One outcome that surprised me in the early years was how consistently this approach exceeded government expectations for helping clients secure immediate employment, while still supporting them in pursuing purpose-based careers over the longer term.

Why It Works

It produces a sensible, achievable, business-like career plan — grounded in purpose, which is where all good plans begin. The message throughout the workshop is that this approach is designed for everyone, not only those who are unemployed. People at any stage of their working life — changing direction, feeling stuck, or simply looking for more meaning in what they do — benefit from getting clear on what they have to contribute and building from there.

The Details

July 13–17, 2026 — five mornings, live online, 9 to 11AM Pacific Standard Time daily.

Facilitated by Steve Miller and Denise Reimer.

Twenty complimentary practitioner seats — one per agency, first-come, first-served.

Registration deadline is July 7, 2026.

To reserve a seat or ask questions, visit workingonpurpose.ca or reach out directly.

Steve Miller is the founder of Working on Purpose® and the 2025 recipient of the Outstanding Career Leader award from Career Professionals of Canada. He has worked in career development for over 40 years and is based in Salmon Arm, BC.

Photo by rawpixel on Magnific.