How do you design a career that aligns with your values, leverages your strengths, and drives meaningful impact? Erica Sosna sits down with property investment powerhouse Anna Harper to unravel the balancing act between ambition and focus. With a career spanning over a decade in property and investment, Anna has navigated every twist and turn—whether building trust with individual investors, managing complex deals, or driving change at scale.
But, like many high-achievers, Anna has faced the daunting challenge of pursuing parallel paths that both demand her energy. Join Erica and Anna as...
How do you design a career that aligns with your values, leverages your strengths, and drives meaningful impact? Erica Sosna sits down with property investment powerhouse Anna Harper to unravel the balancing act between ambition and focus. With a career spanning over a decade in property and investment, Anna has navigated every twist and turn—whether building trust with individual investors, managing complex deals, or driving change at scale.
But, like many high-achievers, Anna has faced the daunting challenge of pursuing parallel paths that both demand her energy. Join Erica and Anna as they use The Career Equation, Erica's empowering framework for aligning talents, passions, values, and work environments, to solve Anna’s career conundrum and uncover powerful lessons you can apply to your own professional challenges.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
This episode isn’t just an inspiring deep-dive into Anna’s career—it’s a roadmap for anyone feeling torn between multiple opportunities, ambitions, or markets. Together, Erica and Anna explore actionable strategies for finding clarity, making purpose-driven decisions, and reframing uncertainty as growth.
- How Anna discovered what truly drives her career fulfilment.
- The value of aligning your goals with your impact—professionally and personally.
- How slowing down and saying “no” can actually accelerate your career trajectory.
- Practical ways to build a work rhythm that supports energy, creativity, and productivity.
Through honesty, humour, and clear insights, this conversation is packed full of value—whether you’re an entrepreneur, a corporate employee, or a creative professional navigating complex career challenges.
Key Themes and Episode Breakdown:
1. Anna’s Professional Journey:
- From strategy consultant at Deloitte to property expert, Anna’s career path has been anything but linear. She explains how her early experience in real estate strategy eventually led to her co-founding GreenResi, a platform helping investors make informed decisions about energy-efficient homes.
- With over 300 property transactions under her belt and three books published, Anna shares how her love for problem-solving and writing became instrumental in her success.
2. The Career Conundrum:
- Currently balancing two distinct markets—consumer property investors and large institutional clients—Anna reveals the growing tension in her professional life.
- Erica helps Anna unpack her core challenge of needing to focus her energy on one market without feeling like she’s abandoning opportunities elsewhere.
3. Applying The Career Equation Framework:
Erica takes Anna through her four-part framework, tackling clarity from every angle and landing key insights along the way.
- Skills: Anna identifies grit, effective communication, and analysis as her standout traits.
- Passion: Writing, simplifying complex ideas, and helping others make informed decisions are where she thrives.
- Impact: Developing energy-efficient homes and creating real-world solutions for housing shortages give Anna’s career purpose and meaning.
- Environment: An ideal work setting for Anna includes collaboration with inspiring people, daily accountability systems, and room to learn and experiment without fear of failure.
4. The Power of Saying No:
- Erica and Anna take a close look at why saying “yes” to everything can dilute your energy and impact. Anna reflects on her fear of making the wrong career choice and Erica reframes it as an opportunity for strengthening focus and amplifying results.
- They also discuss how to maintain balance, allowing external opportunities to evolve naturally without letting them overtake your primary goals.
5. Lessons on Burnout and Building Resilience:
- Anna opens up about past experiences with burnout and shares her strategies for creating boundaries, avoiding presenteeism, and maximising her productivity in shorter, focused sprints.
- The episode highlights the importance of self-awareness and designing your workflow to meet your specific needs.
6. Impact-Driven Career Goals:
- Anna’s ambitious vision of delivering 1,000 sustainable homes by 2028 reflects her commitment to leaving a legacy in property investment.
- She shares how finding purpose in her work has kept her focused and energised, even in the face of challenges.
7. Anna's Takeaways:
- “You can do anything, but not everything.” This poignant truth inspires Anna’s move towards streamlining her efforts and doubling down on one clear path.
- Clarity comes with practice, and making decisions that align with your authentic self beats chasing fleeting opportunities.
Key Insights and Actionable Steps for Listeners:
- Why Focus Matters: Learn to identify and refine your top priorities—whether they reflect skills, passions, or impact—and dedicate your best energy to them.
- Celebrate Learning (and Failing): Approach challenges with curiosity rather than fear—setbacks are opportunities in disguise.
- Don’t Overcomplicate Success: Sometimes, success isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing fewer things better and purposefully.
- How to Build Accountability into Your Day: Daily or weekly check-ins, even with one trusted partner, can dramatically improve progress and focus.
- Burnout Prevention: Listen to your work rhythms and create a sustainable pace that supports long-term productivity and wellness.
About Anna Harper:
Anna Harper is a property investment expert, writer, podcaster, and founder of GreenResi, where she helps investors make informed decisions about sustainable housing developments. With a degree in Land Economy from Cambridge, a successful career in strategy consulting at Deloitte, and a passion for addressing the UK housing crisis, Anna’s mission is to deliver solutions that balance profit with purpose.
Through her work, Anna aims to connect investors with the tools and insights they need to create meaningful impact—one home at a time.
Links and Resources:
- Connect with Anna Harper on LinkedIn for her latest content and updates.
- Discover GreenResi: Learn more about their innovative approach to residential investment.
- Read Anna’s books for accessible, actionable tips on property investment.
- Follow Erica Sosna on LinkedIn for career coaching insights and updates on The Career Equation Podcast.
🎧 Tune in to hear how Erica helped Anna unlock clarity in this thought-provoking, value-packed episode. This conversation is guaranteed to leave you inspired to take bold yet intentional steps toward your personal and professional goals.
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