Ep. 37: Dear Hiring Manager (Live Coaching - Your Deep Dive into the Intentional Career Design Pathway)

Career Design Podcast

Episode 37: Dear Hiring Manager (Live Coaching - Your Deep Dive into the Intentional Career Design Pathway)

Lindsay 00:00

I'm Lindsay Mustain, and this is the career design podcast made for driven ambitious square pegs and round holes type professionals who see things differently and challenge the status quo. We obliterate obstacles and unlock hidden pathways to overcome and succeed where others have not stagnation feels like death. And we are unwilling to compromise our integrity and settle for being average in any way. We are the backbone of any successful business, and those who overlook our potential are doomed to a slow demise. We do work that truly matters aligns with our purpose, and in turn, we make our lasting mark on the world. We are the dreamers, doers, legends, and visionaries who are called to make our most meaningful contribution and love what we do.

Lindsay 00:42

I am so thrilled to have you here today, Abby, and I want to I just want to go back to a moment when I have not a lot of things come across my feet because I have a large network. And I saw a bunch of people that are in my community who absolutely believe in human beings comment on your story. And so I want to go today, we're going to talk a little bit about what's happened in your journey. And we're actually going to do some work today to triage some of the challenges that you've had and help you get past some of the barriers that you've experienced. So can you start by just introducing yourself to me and we will, we'll go from there, and helping you kind of move the dial when it comes to your job search?

Abby 01:29

Yeah, but I'll give you a quick little intro. So as Lindsay mentioned, my name is Abby Mueller and fun fact, my middle name is Lindsay and spelled the same way as yours, so we've got that in common too. Yeah, and just wanted to first start and just say thank you for, for doing this with me, I think this is incredible. And the more I listened to your podcast, the more I really resonate with what you're trying to do. And I think that this is gonna be really powerful. And I'm just really excited to be here and part of this journey. So yeah, just a quick little video on me. I am a newly certified UX UI designer, and subsequently 2021 career switcher, I come from an extensive background in corporate beauty retail. I live in Southern California with my husband. And you know, when I'm not designing and solving problems, solving problems with excellent design solutions. I love to paddleboard and bake and love to try new things, which is why we're here. That's a little about me.

Lindsay 02:34

Beautiful. So you, you wrote this really powerful post on LinkedIn. And you told me a little bit about it. So I want to kind of go back to that moment. You had kind of a forced career change, correct?

Abby 02:46

Yes. Yeah. So my, my educational background is in psychology, which will come into play. But like many who do something completely different. I spent the last 16 years working for a fortune 500 company, advancing my career in beauty retail, which was excellent. And I held many positions with the company and a lot of different departments, but most recently was managing the corporate facilities for the for the business, which is in Chicagoland. And I've always tried to make really smart and strategic moves as I advanced my career throughout my tenure with them and so when my husband took a position in Oceanside, California, in January of 2020, you know, I went to my leadership, and was really fortunate to have amazing leaders who supported my career growth. And, you know, we talked about like, where do we go from here, what's next for me, and we came up with this plan to transition me from a position that was at our home office to a field leadership role in Southern California. So great, next move lined up, let's go. And then of course, as we all know, the pandemic hit two months later, full force, and that shut down all of our stores and our corporate office. And I took a leap of faith. And I moved to California anyway, because that was the plan and that's where we were going. And that's what what I wanted to do. So I moved out to California, and was really fortunate to be able to manage the facilities and manage my team remotely for 10 months, thanks to some excellent support from our leadership and from the company. But I knew that wasn't to last and so I began to look into some other options, because our stores just weren't opening as quickly as we thought they might. So I knew that there there had to be something else out there, which is how I got introduced to UX design, which for those of you who don't know, it's a discipline where you approach things from like a problem solution based approach and you place users are people at the center and you're designing a solution around a person to solve a problem or meet a need for them. It's very cool, and I'm really excited to be in it now. So I went online and I was like, Okay, well, how can I become a designer, and found these boot camps. So that's where I discovered Design Lab. It was a course that I could do at my own pace, you know, in my own time and complete in six months or less, and certify myself to be a designer. So that's what I did. I was working full time, and I needed something that worked around my schedule. So I signed up, I took my first class, and then my company went through a reorganization and my position was eliminated. Day one. So as crushing as that was, and it was like, it was like going through a breakup, honestly, I had been, you know, in this relationship with this business for 16 years. And it was tough, but, but it was also like kind of a relief in a way for me, because I knew that, you know, I was going in a different direction. And it really just opened the door for me to lean into that and you know, really power through this coursework, which I did. And I graduated in June of this year from design labs. So now I can do some UX work and solve some really big problems, which is super exciting to me. And yeah, so I'm just looking for a place to plug in and do some meaningful work with people who are passionate about what they do. Let's go okay,

Lindsay 06:13

I love that. So huge, powerful reason up-leveling yourself. I love how you look at your opportunity to make a difference now and what you're doing next, and really thinking about how do I make my best contribution. So these are all incredibly powerful, and you've done the right things, but how is that going actually in the job search?

Abby 06:33

That's so great. So that's part of the reason I made that posted that article was, you know, I, as part of my design lab journey, they set you up with a career coach. And she's been amazing. But I haven't had to look for a job for 16 years, because I've been with the same company. So this is all very, like, brand new to me again. So yeah, I've been doing all the traditional things, I guess, like on LinkedIn, and I'm on Glassdoor, and indeed, and I'm searching for jobs that are remote or in my local area that I can do. And I'm qualified for that sound interesting. And I'm creating all of this custom content for each of them write custom resumes, custom cover letters, custom pages in my portfolio, I'm following up with emails to a lot of these organizations afterwards, with varying degrees of success there, sometimes the email doesn't even really exist anymore. So that'll come back. And it's just been really frustrating, because I feel like I'm pouring out everything. networking events, you know, LinkedIn, like I said, you know, putting my work up on dribble, which is a site where designers showcase some of their UI work, and not getting a whole lot of feedback, and in many cases, nothing at all. And that's where what sparked me writing that piece was I was asked to reflect on my journey so far and I was just at this like my wit's end. And I was like, all right, well, I'm gonna tell you how I feel about this. And I'm gonna be really honest, it's not been great. I was fortunate to have Adam Karpiak comment on my LinkedIn, when I shared that article, and he asked everyone in his network to read it, which Thank you, Adam, if you're watching, because it really allowed. It's just insane, make you connections with so many people that I would never have otherwise been able to connect with. And to just find out that this is a chord that a lot of people are resonating with. And yeah, so this is, this is what brought us together as well. So hopefully, we're going to continue furthering this journey, and we'll see where it goes. And maybe we'll, you know, be able to solve this problem together as well.

Lindsay 08:42

Yes. So you are talking about some of my biggest pain points and why I do the work that I do. And so I'm listening to your story pretty much breaks my heart, in listening to out so I wanted to talk to you today was that one just to tell job seekers, they're not alone. This is this is it. So I'll just give a little background for anybody who's listening or tuning in here. Um, you know, funny, you talked about Adam, he's one of the most heart centered people that I actually know. And if you go look at one of the recommendations on my list, he actually started posting content after he saw what I was doing, which is, like probably the most amazing endorsement that I could get, because he's just a really remarkable human being. So I've been in the talent acquisition space for more than 20 years. It's hard to say that these days, 20 years now I started when I was five, I survived. It's probably it's kind of a little bit like the Hunger Games as job searching. And I'm going to highlight some things that people are actually talking about here. As you're as you're sharing these things, because what you're talking about, it's just an epidemic of what people are experiencing. So I'm going to tell you just my background is 20 years. Most recently, I was at Amazon before I started my company four years ago, and there's a lot of people out there now who are seeing these same pain points. When I was at Amazon, I had the opportunity to go into a role where I recruited for the most elusive talent on the planet. They actually designed this job for me after sharing on this platform, the hacks of how to beat the the hiring process, because this was just so powerful and I wanted to help people because I've watched it, I hired over 10,000 people by the time I ended at Amazon, 10,343 people, and I would go out and I would hire these people are like the most elusive talent clan. So there's three people that do this job, Lindsay, go find them and get them to come work for us. So this is what we call the purple squirrel. Okay, so if you've ever heard that terminology, it's kind of it's kind of a joke, basically trying to find a unicorn. And what I did is I how these people show up, and how they get found and how they go through this process is very different than people who traditionally go through the process. So I just want you to know that the rulebook that you've been given, is broken. And this is why you were experiencing the pain. Does that resonate with you? Does that make sense? So we, and I'm going to compare the two between like a commodity space and an asset space. So the best example of what I'm talking about these different marketplaces is, um, let's see here, yeah, I'm surprised anyone can get hired today. Yeah. Okay. And we're gonna, we're gonna dive deep into this. And if you guys, if this is resonating with you guys, please tell me in the chat, that it's helped. Like, it's helping you because I want to give you some tools here. And at the very end, I'm actually going to ask you if you feel like we should continue with Abby's journey, which I hope you will, because she's just pretty amazing. Yeah. Let's, let's keep this journey going. So we can help her progress, where she's going from being stuck. So this reverse engineering of this process meant like, how do these people compete and the different ways that you're playing an asset marketplace versus a commodity, so commodity, the best way to describe this is like, when you Thanksgiving time, you know, we're all making pie, pretty much. I'm just gonna paint with some very white brushes here. So one of the things you need is an ingredient for pie is granulated sugar. Okay, so white granulated sugar. So Abby, when you go to the store, and you buy white granulated sugar, what do you buy?

Abby 12:11

What's available?

Lindsay 12:13

Usually what I say whatever is cheapest. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Like, it already goes, like I am going, I don't even know what the label Oh, like the the brand is like pink label, right? Whatever it is, that piece and why nobody usually buys it, buy whatever's on sale, right, because it's like everything else. So that is the commodity It's a race to the bottom. And that's how most jobseekers are positioning themselves is just one of many. And they are hoping that they get to pick me right? And so we compete and we we decrease our worth, and we don't we just try to fit into the mold that everyone wants us to. Okay. So that's a true of a commodity. Now, let's say I am and for me like I like stevia, that's my my sugar of choice because it doesn't have a glycemic impact. And sugar in general makes me a little more crazy than I normally am and also, when you go buy stevia, I know in particular, I would have I sweetleaf stevia. How much do you think I paid for at?

Abby 13:09

At least two or three times as much as regular sugar?

Lindsay 13:12

Yes. And I pick it out and I very specifically choose it. And that is an asset. So these are the difference between that. So does that make sense to you about why sometimes that we are competing in a space that's incredibly convoluted, and it's a red ocean and essence of it's bloody with competition? Okay, so right now we have the ones you say in your article 7% unemployment, 7% unemployment. I'm also going to tell you right now and a break some beliefs, this is the best time I've ever seen a job search for real. And so some of it, I know, I'm going to tell you some very controversial things, great candidate of choice. So that's what I'm going to teach you actually through this process here is how to become the candidate of choice. So we were first the the big part is that the structure of job searching is broken. I'll give you an example. When I was at a really large company, I had a team and we had all of the applications that had never been touched. Okay, so on average, we spend about 30 minutes submitting a job application, maybe more, maybe more, especially if you've spent time actually customizing a cover letter and a resume. And there were on my team was like 15 people, yes. How many applications we had never bothered to respond to? Seven? Yeah, 7 million, 7 million people waiting for a response. And so there's a lot of stories back here. And I won't go through all of my stories, because there's a million I have. But that was heartbreaking for me. And when I realized some of my deeper stories around job searching was that I really cared about the individual human being like I really cared like one of the reasons why I got the job at Amazon and I was this matchmaker in essence for talent, was because I really cared about the individual person and finding the right home for them and what they brought to the table and how do we actually build jobs around people versus trying to put people in to what I call job description pages. You're not just a black and white box list of job descriptions and a lot of us have been trying to fit into that box. Does that resonate with you?

Abby 15:10

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Lindsay 15:11

that's okay. Yeah.

Abby 15:12

So it's hard to stand out when that well, a there is no standard. Right. And but we are expected to follow one. But you know, you say it so well, um, you know, square peg round hole. I'm not one of those. Right. I'm a square peg in a round hole. Like, I don't want..

Lindsay 15:29

Yes. Okay. So this is and this is why we call like the the trade of the high performers. If you haven't listened, my podcast is the career design podcast. Please go give it a listen. Because it is just, if you listen, I think you said like the introduction. You're like, yes, this is me and I'm like, Yeah, the people who are different than the norm, that's who I work with that's how I specialized. And if you if you want to play the job, search apply game. Like, I'm not for you. I'm just not I'm teaching you I want to create a future for you. That's way more powerful. Um, all right here. Yeah. So, so much text here that like might look like Wilson. 250 applications. Okay, so I'm also gonna start applying before the pandemic, the average number of applications for a single job was 250. So the likelihood of you getting a job offer from that was .4%, I don't have the most recent numbers. But when we we increased the unemployment rate by double or triple in some cases, we can just probably expect that is a lot larger, because I don't I usually want to talk about proof of concept. I don't know the exact number. So .4% please give me something and they're like, okay, here's a medication, and it works point .4% of the time. How long do you think you're going to take better? Do you think you'll find a different way? Lots of people do have 250 applications before they have to find something different. So when I go through this, I actually left Amazon. When I hit a moment, I have three people for this one job, I was looking in Singapore and three people to do this job. And in this job, there was one woman and two men. And I, I got this note, I'll tell you, it broke my heart. I got this note from the woman and she said you like found me out. And I know you believe in candidate experience. If you look back, like 10 years ago, I talked about how important candidate experiences. Finally, just now we're starting to act like people matter. And she said I would never work for your company. And I just want you to know, like how this happened. And it broke my heart like, like to the point where I just started crying. Like I just started crying because I watched this and I think we are going to continue it feels like a lot of people are really resonating with you right now. So I watched this happen in my own life, and I'll talk about that another time. But I just cried, and then I got really, really effing angry, okay, I'm not really supposed to swear on LinkedIn live, but I'm the Antichrist, versus I don't do anything traditionally. And that's what makes me different, and why I am the very best in the world at creating intentional career design. So how do we create these, like $100,000 increases, what I teach is so powerful, and that's what I want to share with you here. So I escalated and the next thing I did is I wrote my resignation, notice, because I was like, This is my limit, I can no longer do this anymore. I cannot deny that these are human beings worthy of being treated like an individual person, and not just a number. And when I did that, I wrote a resignation has zero plan of what the heck I was going to do. Okay, so some of you will resonate with that, because you reached a point where you literally are selling your soul for your paycheck. And that's what I was doing, I was selling my soul for a paycheck. So now what I do is I help people create an intentional career design, like we can actually create the job you were meant to. Alright. And that means and Abby has done this, and I'm not going to fault you because I went to school at night for 10 years to get my degree to be qualified to do the job I already had, how much do you think I got a pay increase for that?

Abby 18:53

Probably nothing at all,

Lindsay 18:55

Nada, okay. But I felt like I needed it. And so like a lot of times we choose education, and this is this is the programming of our world that says you have to go to school in order to be qualified, like really peer to peer education is the most powerful model that exists right now, we don't need to do that you can do a program that's really short and qualified. So that's a much better option than going back and like your MBA in nine weeks, folks, I can get you two times of what the cost of your MBA is and salary increase without going. That's how powerful that's the journey I want to walk you through here. Okay, so these are some of the things when we go through and I'm gonna say it's not the answer is not the resume. The answer is not your resume. In fact, the people that I work with here, they don't have to apply for jobs. And I know that sounds crazy, but do you think the people that I was looking for like, were they actually applying to those jobs? They weren't they became the candidate of choice. And so that's what I talked about the purple squirrels candidate choice, so the highest power position, so I'm going to walk you through this piece. Yes. And he says, I don't want to apply for 600 applications.

Abby 19:55

Just everyone in the comments, thank you. Like please keep commenting because it's I mean, I know that this is like frustrating, and we're struggling all together. But this is just it's really encouraging to me to hear from everybody else as well. So I'm glad.

Lindsay 20:08

People probably be like, just go get a job. I don't know if you felt like that. They say like it's so easy. Hey, death, divorce, moving, job search. Yeah, when we're talking about a couple of those, so you're going for a superpower, like of a storm of change. But also I know that, I think it was. Who was it that said this? It's been Jenelle said, it's been a blessing in disguise. And so they're in my darkest moments, what I see. So I will read it says, your passion alone gives me hope. I love that. You can do this, this is why we do this 80% of what my business does is totally for free, because I just want to help you move the dial and not everybody can take the chance to invest. But if you follow along with me, I'm going to give you the best resources I possibly have. And that's actually why I asked Abby to be on here because I wanted to say, this is how we do this. This is how we do that. Hey, Brian, it's so great to see you. Okay, highly qualified individual here can't find a job to save my life. Yes. And that's really what it is like, it's just this so I want to talk about the pathway. Okay, so the pathway because I asked you guys recently, like, what do you want to learn from me? Like, I'm gonna tell you everything. I can't I can't tell you exactly everything. Cuz I have a nondisclosure agreement. One last things Amazon said is don't want the door, just don't forget, you have a nondisclosure agreement. But I'm going to tell you just about everything in general about how this process is a 20,000 or not 20,000 1 million applications 10,343 hires as an individual. And then in, in my world now I've helped over 50,000 people across six continents in 121 countries. So what I teach works, it just works. And so I want you to know, but the programming after a move here is that what you're doing right now is not going to work. And you'd be here's the proof. You're here and 66% of people that visit LinkedIn every day are here for job searching. So here's the proof. Okay, so just know and that that may be intimidating, but I'm gonna tell you that you become a you create your own reality here. Okay. All right. It just started my job search in this conversation is helpful as I begin. Thank you so much, Abby, I'm so glad you're here. Okay, so the pathway inside of this, and this is where a lot of the struggle happens. The first thing is marketability mindset. And so when I talk about marketability mindset, that means you have to see yourself as one worthy of being able to find an opportunity, okay, so a lot of times how many of you can if you can resonate with this, that we we doubt our aptitude in our ability, the lot of times we're dealing with job trauma, okay? Job trauma means we have been displaced, or we've been rejected hundreds or 1000s of times. And so we suddenly internalize that, and we forget about our true worthiness. And so I want you to like, what I really do here is I'm teaching you guys how to tap into your soul's true purpose, and I know I'm gonna get I'm a little woowoo I'm really, really spiritual, like the fact this is what's created the massive abundance in my life is this woowooness. Okay. And so I teach a lot of and I fused that inside of what I do, because it's incredibly powerful, like, why why we get such good results in such short period of time, is when we believe in that so I always talk about being in the business of me inc, you are the CEO, of Abby Inc, okay? Like that is the first thing, okay, so everything that we go from here, we can look at it from that perspective, we're always going to do what's in the business, the best business, best business decision for this business. So that's market building mindset. And in order to do that, we have to believe that we are worthy help brands do the work. Lindsay and her do with Lindsay and her team recommend I know seriously, if you just do it, trust the process. Somebody was throwing stones at me here and like, just trust the process. Like, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. You've already done that. Let me help you. Okay, so thanks so much for being here.

Abby 23:34

Looks like from where I'm sitting, and I think a lot of the rest of us do, like we've tried everything else. We're throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. So like, what I'm what, honestly, could it hurt, like, we have to try something else, right? This isn't working.

Lindsay 23:45

And I have that too. Like, I'm just gonna say like, I will go through a lot of other stories here with you. But I was unemployed to as a recruiter in the Great Recession, and I was doing everything that they tell you to Okay, I started in the unemployment office and listened to somebody teach me the same thing that I was doing, and it wasn't working. And that's how I came up with this. It wasn't because, like, like I worked it because a lot of people out there and I think that really good intentions, but they have zero clue what they're doing. As far as career coaches. I'm like, I can teach you how to write a better resume. What if I told you your resume isn't the answer? Your application isn't the answer your cover letter, like you might as well just waste time like write some poetry, do something else with that time, because anything besides the cover letter, your cover letter doesn't really help you. Okay, so there are a lot of things where like, this is it? Yeah, I don't know how many times I spent, I mean, 40 hours on average is what I see somebody who's written the resume before they come see me. Like, what if I told you in 40 hours of time we can get you 2.1 job offers? Like, that's what I'm trying to teach people. Okay, so, first thing marketing, mindset, and worthiness. So we're going to talk about some of these things going forward here. But this is the first thing so really believing that I'm worthy of creating this opportunity, and that I have to check a lot of baggage. So a lot of emotional trauma that we bring to the table here is what causes us to limit ourselves. And so we think that we're something wrong with us. There's nothing wrong with you. Okay? And even if you feel a little broken, even if you feel a little like, God, who am I to do this? Like, can I create this? I want you to know what can be done and how I know. I mean, there's 50,000 people, I can tell you how. Okay, so just just like Brian says, do the work to work here. Okay. So that's the first thing. Now the next thing here is clarity. And this for you, Abby, is what I see is one of the struggles for you, because I had this thing. And now I have this different identity shift, right? So I'm trying to evolve into this next level of who I am. So when people are like, I'm trying to make a pivot, and I'm struggling with this, or, and I'm going to say like this, I'm going to say this. I'm doing it with love. Just know like, right here, if you look around, you can't really see, but its value is love. That's fine. Bring it on. I love it. Yeah. Yeah, it's always my highest value is love. And I know you accept this. But a lot of times we identify as our story is, this is why I'm not having success. And what if I told you that the story of what went wrong is actually your story of success? This is hard for people. And so they're like, and they'll say, like I am, I am over 40, or I have been unemployed, or I have a disability. And these things, I'm gonna say they're not invalid. What I'm saying is that what if those things are actually your superpowers? It's true. Okay, so that's the first thing. And that's where people like, really, you don't like yeah, you just have you see it, and you're so close to it, you're like, this is why I'm broken. And I'm like, I don't know what the phrase is. But there's, when you're in Japan, they'll fill like broken bowls with gold, and it becomes a more beautiful product. Because at the end, that's what you are. So what I'm looking for that is that first thing. So this is a little bit of mindset to. And then the next thing here is that we have to understand everything about your experience today, how it transfers into what you want to do. And this is the up level, and it doesn't matter if you actually went to school, or you're you've been, you got out of the workforce, you're coming back, you've been injured, you're re entering the workforce after like, there's so many stories of what people come to me at this point. But we need to know is that your zone of genius is your most powerful thing here. So there is it's not going to be your UI UX answer like it's not going to be that it's going to be that combined with your experience and what you were excellent at not even excellent. What's your genius at? That is so powerful. Okay, yes, we were saying I love that could not agree more. Okay. Yes. And so, some of the things you guys know, in your core, this is like reality, but it's hard. Sometimes you need somebody to just enlighten you a little bit. So clarity is the most important thing. So you have superpowers and superpowers is going to be 1% of what you're good at. Let me give you an example. I am terrible at email. So there's like zone of a competency. There's competency, there's excellence, and there's genius. Okay, my genius is how to land a job without applying and how do I create an environment that creates the Most High Caliber talent to create profitability in organizations? Those are my two superpowers, okay, my superpower is not checking my email. So if you expect that not going to happen, if you ever seen the quote, I think it was our mindset. He said, if you could, if everybody was judged, if you judge a fish, by its genius, by its ability to climb a tree, it would go through his whole life thinking it's stupid, okay. So what you're trying to do is you don't fit into these molds. And I want you to know, you need to break that mold, stop believing that you have to fit into a mold. So that's the other thing. So we want to create that. And then what you need to do is create a value proposition, this is really hard. So a value proposition for yourself is about who I am, and what I have to offer this future organization so that I see myself as no longer no longer about that I am trading time for money. But instead, I am a value, I'm getting value for my trade my value for an investment, which is no longer tied to time. And it's tied to what is my worthiness of what I can do. Because I know there are two jobs inside of a company, I either save money or I make money. Those are the two options. I know that's hard for people to believe you're like oh, and HR. And I'm like, Yeah, I cost people money. Like Really? I do. But what do I do if I hire for sales teams, I'm probably making them money or I am limited. If I'm in the you know, employee relations space, I might be saving money because I'm risk mitigation from lawsuits. So our idea here is how do we turn ourselves into the most marketable thing possible and true clarity. So a lot times when we are stuck in this place, we are stuck because we have 360 degrees of opportunities, and that is paralyzing. So it probably was hard for you think what do I do now? Right? And I'm glad you did something you're really passionate about. But we need to triangulate where we're going next. So that's what we call like the super heart trifecta is your three points of expertise and in the zone here is your your zone of genius and that zone of genius. It's probably gonna feel really wonky in the very beginning, but this is how we build your brand is your authority around this and it's going to be the things you've already done and accomplished combined with your newest skill set. That's actually going to be the amplifier for your success here. Okay. I'm finding so hard okay. Yeah. Is it Shabbat? I think that's that's a really That's the first time I've ever seen this spelled where I'm like, Oh, I get it. I think so if that I'm almost a diversity program on my own. I know the people I work with NIF tend to be completely marginalized. So just know that Ramin needs more coffee. Okay. So that's after we understand we are marketable and what the heck we are actually marketing. Then we can do our rest All right, do you think you might have put the wrap the resume before we got to that point for you?

Abby 30:06

Uh, I think I have a little bit of both. But I don't think that that value prop is in my resume as much as it is on my portfolio, which someone may or may not ever get to my resume doesn't get there. So,

Lindsay 30:17

yes. So your resume? Again, more, there's so many stories here. So I just, I'm going to tell you all my secrets, do you mind guys, if you want to know all my secrets, people are saying you're rooting for you. So they require rooting for you. We are in it together. So the resume like, let me just be really clear, I has one job, I'm gonna say and I hope I don't get banned, is to prove your fucking badass. Okay? to yourself, not to me, because I have the chance of it actually being seen by a human being less than 25% 25% or less. And for six seconds. So how many of you feel like a piece of paper in six seconds, actually gonna say, Oh, this is gonna get me in a job. It's probably not it has the can. But really, the whole point is the marketing material for Abby Inc. And if that marketing material, he says I am asked, then I know that I'm incredibly powerful, right. And I have some so much to contribute. Okay, after we do that. So that's how one clarity is so important. After that, the next thing is going to be the LinkedIn. Okay, so LinkedIn here, and like when you say looking for new opportunities, it's actually a lower power position. So there's some things in here we're going to talk about how to optimize a little bit inside of this, but your, your LinkedIn profile, like there's a reason why I haven't looked for a job since 2007. And that that is because of my LinkedIn profile. So if you do this, right, the people just contact you about opportunities, and you might get that already. And I'm not saying they're always the right opportunities, but really the dream opportunities where we can get your, your dream ever has to come to you. And it's by really declaring your superpowers and your zone of genius and what you offer as a value, and aligning what you do as far as scope and quality, scope and impact in particular to that profile. That's what we do inside of the resume. Okay, so that's, that's the secret here. And most people were like, you know, I was looking at Forbes, like, I think it was 2020. Like, well, how to write a resume this year. And I was like, it was one page. It was super wrong. Like I when people like that the answer on your resume is just no, it's not going to get you the job. Like rarely is this like people like oh my god, I found this piece of paper, and now I need to hire this person. That's that's not exactly how it works. Okay. However, it is a tool that you need. So you got to have it and then your LinkedIn and your LinkedIn is the highest embodiment of who you are as a human being. Okay, so after you do this, and why the heck, I got a best selling book without actually trying to sell it when I tried to give it away. I had a best selling book. That's amazing. Yeah, I was I wasn't very happy about that. I asked for permission to do it. And they didn't allow me and I went ahead and did it. Anyhow, you guys see that I'm a rebel in general. So I'm like, against everything that's traditional, because it just doesn't work. Okay, so your, your brand, which have you already done a really good job, people are showing up and like, like rooting for you real people here listening, like you're amazing. Okay, that is your brand, you're standing in your power. And you are showcasing some of the deepest wounds of what people experience inside of here. And I just want to congratulate you for being brave. This vulnerability, this authenticity is actually a superpower for you. Okay? So what I'm always looking for inside of your brand is, do I show up in alignment with my values? Okay. So a lot of times people come to me and they have been there marginalized, in general, they come to me like, and they're just, they end up in one of the protected classes, and they don't identify like, if they don't fit into what's the most easy way. And I'm just gonna paint with a wide brush here. You know why guys under 40, in general, have a lot easier. Like that's what a bunch of white guys said, on the boards of almost all corporate America, like there's 3% of all CEOs are black. Like there's the major, we have an opportunity for diversity and inclusion. We see that happening right now. But in reality, it's not really showing up. So how do you show up in your highest truth and get embraced for who you are, it's by being actually who you are at your highest level, it's stop trying to fit yourself into a box, stop denying the things that you're passionate about, stop denying the things like when you talk about what actual pain was, you saw what people responded to you as? So those things are real true amplifiers for you. So I want you to like why, why I got a book why, you know why you got you know, this mass of views. Why am I Why are you here right now, is your brand.

Abby 34:23

It's interesting that you say that though, because I wrote that. And you're right. It was like, distinctly different than anything that I had put out there before. And it was very just raw and like, real. And I honestly didn't publish it at first because I was like, Oh, can I really put myself out there like this right now? I'm in the job search, you know, I'm hunting and I'm like, does this present me in a bad light and so I didn't put it out there right away and my mentor got back to me and my husband and both of them were like, you need people need to read this. You have to put that out there and I was like, Okay, here we go. So Yeah, I that I couldn't have expected the response that I got. But like, that was very validating. So thank you everybody for reading and commenting and sharing her. Amazing.

Lindsay 35:13

Most people won't do this. So this this is one of the secrets here and like why people end up you know, having, you know, massive visibility in their candidacy. It's not actually like, she's she said to me before this, she was like, I don't want to be complaining. I don't think anybody took it as complaining. It was a call to do better. was a call to do better. Ooh, I'm gonna put Deborah said, instead of thinking outside the box, say yourself, what if there is no box? Oh, that is so powerful. Deborah. Oh, my gosh, okay. Yes. All right. Now, I want you to take anything you thought you believed about this process and throw it away, cuz I'm gonna destroy all of that. Let's do something better. Yeah, yeah. And that is the other trees that we're going to make is we're going to make the system better. And there is a better way. And I'll talk about that and other other things. But right now we're going to talk about how do we get ahead as the individual advocating for yourself because right now a company is not going to advocate for you. And vulnerability is a superpower. I love that. Okay. So after we get through extra brand now, so how do we increase the power position we have in this is by having a brand, right? So have he has the ear of a lot of people, right? Now she has a lot of visibility. This is something she should leverage. All right. And this creates a higher caliber candidacy in our brand, because she's able to cultivate lots of people right now who are interested in her. So if we have multitude of options, we increase our power position. That's what we want when we walk into networking. So I'm gonna tell you what most networking looks like is like, hey, Lindsay, look at my profile. Here's my resume. Can you find me a job? Alright, I'm gonna tell you here. I love you all. It is not my job to find you a job. Okay, it is not the recruiters job to find you a job. That is your job. Okay, you need to find the best way to do it. And seriously, it is not is not easy. Okay, if you want to see her go through this with me, because I think we're gonna do it. I feel already inclined to do it. But I need your guys's proof that we want to do this. Okay. All right. So networking, we I just want you to know, if you make up anything that has a question mark, in your networking, try to connection requests, you have failed before you've even started. All right. So nobody owes you anything. This is not a job search. Soup Kitchen. Nobody owes you anything. So how do we do this? We create a high caliber candidacy, we create a lot of power. Ooh, I want more. I want more. I want more. Okay, so we're good. Okay. All right. This is powerful. Okay. So, um, we need to change how we think about networking. And it is not I showed up because I want something it showed up because I am here to build a relationship. So I have a relationship with Abby, like, and when she sees something in that I'm connected to you, I will go and advocate for her. Okay. And look, how long have I known Abby? I'm only for a week. Right? Yeah. You know, it goes both ways. Like I said, I really believe in what you're doing. I think this is incredibly powerful. And I want to be part of that. Yeah. So that's, that's what I like, what I have goosebumps, because like, that's why I do this is because I care about people like I care about people. So what I do mostly is for free, I'm gonna give you guys some resources at the end here to start changing your job search actually today. But um, and then what we do to keep lights on and take care of our families is we monetize people who want the fastest results and then inside of our containers, but I'm going to teach you everything I know, right? I'm just gonna show everything I know. So after we do the networking piece, then Okay, so we've chosen who we are, we believe we're marketable, we show up in our power, we have brand equity, and now we've had authentic true connections. Now we get to the opportunity to interview and I also say at any point of these milestones, when somebody steps into their power, we see people who just graduate like three weeks like that's, I have one gal who just graduated 133% increase in her salary in three weeks. It's pretty freaking powerful. And the reason is, we stopped denying our true sovereign being of who we are truly divinely created to be and walk this planet on. So this is the woowoo side All right, when we do that, and when we declare I am this and this is what I deserve, and this is what I want, we can create those realities. Okay, so everything I do is reverse engineering that and I don't care what you want to do. Let me be really clear here. I don't care what Abby wants to do I care that her soul feels fulfilled when she gets to do what we call a place of career power. I'm passionate about this I feel purpose around it I understand that the pursuit and how to uplevel myself and next it's profitable for both me and the business. It's a win win for everything we call that please career power. So that's what we're gonna work towards getting her on that pathway. Next is the interview okay? So how these people that are the most elusive tell in the world how they show up in interviews is very different. A lot of times we do validation seeking behaviors, which is I hope to god this person chooses me to God this person chooses me that is the lowest power position in here and you were acting like a commodity when I need you to recognize that you have created millions of dollars of value for business, okay, so somebody is not lucky to have you, or they are not you're not lucky to get chosen. They are lucky to have you as an employee and that is a very different so we talk about mindset, these are some of the things I go through. Okay, mindset is so important here, when I recognize that I have true value that I can actually ask somebody to demand that for me and create opportunities for me, okay? This is where people when they come to me, I'm like, they're like, Oh, yeah, I had an interview. And I'm like, that wasn't the right job. But they created a whole nother job for me, or I just had a networking conversation. Yeah. So this is when I say you don't have to apply. And some people are like, there's not an unbelievable job market there is there is like, when I had somebody come in to Amazon, you better believe that they didn't show up at the level I was looking for. And they were amazing. I would go and create a job for them, right, but upload or download that job, you do not need to fix in a box, okay? You not need to fix yourself into a box, you need to be exactly you authentically you. And that is the most powerful thing, okay, when we stand in our power. So how do you do this? There are three ways the high performance interviewing process optimizes across first, your elevator pitch is the most powerful thing. It's 90 seconds, there's a free three part framework. I'll go into that just a second. Next is how we respond to interview questions and your how you're going to interview questions is not like, we want to disrupt this process that we don't get interrogations, but when when they happen, we want to show up where they go, wow. And there's a way to do that. And so and the last thing is there's opportunity and ask questions, I'm going to tell you right here at the time, where you ask questions is not about you getting your information found out is about reselling your candidacy and positioning yourself as the candidate of choice. So you walk out of that. Okay, so that is the secret. Then, the next stage is the elevator pitch. So we have to have the elevator pitch. So in these 90 seconds, we're trying to stop people to believe that we're commodity there's something called frame disruption. And this is a psychology technique. And this process I want to walk into the room I'm going to start immediately of Abby is qualified or not, I'm gonna say there's things that are gonna ding her like her having one here is actually a date for her, okay, like, or there's something I had a traumatizing thing with somebody need to Abby, identify the way I'm just using example, like em as an example, for me, Ian's in general can traumatize me because of a bad experience I had. So I have all these unconscious bias I bring into it, we need to disrupt that strategy immediately. And the way we do that is the elevator pitch. And it's three parts. And that's the most powerful thing. So 90 seconds after all of this, I'm trying to get you to deliver 90 seconds of awesomeness to create the reality and create the job of your dreams. That's all. And I know it takes a lot to get there. Okay, it takes a lot to get there. So I want you to know, because we've done this and you're talking about the highest level positioning, have you heard this before? I mean, have you heard this process before?

Abby 42:12

Not not exactly like this, but it's feeling similar to what I did when I was creating my portfolio and that I can advocate for others and I can build up other people very well that that's something that's a strength for me is really like tuning into to other people and helping them become their best selves. But when it comes to like selling myself, that was such a struggle for me, I was like, I don't even know where to start. I don't know what to say. I just couldn't find the right words. And so yeah, writing my, I guess what you call an elevator pitch for my About Me page on my portfolio was probably one of the longest projects and I feel like it's still not quite right. Like, we're gonna make it. But yeah, it's a it's it's feeling very, very close to home. I've done this recently. So

Lindsay 42:56

yes. Okay. So do you have understood and tapped into some of these things? And yes, we tend to be amazing at seeing brilliance and others, and diminishing our own aptitude and our ability, like we said, and it's the trauma that's so we come back. So what I teach you is actually Product Marketing for the product. That is Abby, that's what I'm teaching you is how to market this business. Okay, until the person across the table seat and apartment yes pile, you end up on the callback code on the Hot candidate list. So when a job before it's even published, I go to a pool of people, you're on that list, and that that exists inside of like high performance organizations they are not looking for, like, it's kind of like hoping that falls into a trap in your backyard. When we post a job application. It's not a very strategic way to recruit. So we look for people beforehand. That's why applications don't really work. I'm already looking to hire somebody beforehand, okay. Okay. So when we do this, if we become the candidate choice, and we know that this person can provide a solution, I'm going to go deeper into these things, because Abby, for sure, we're going to continue this process, okay. And I can do this, okay, we've got enough people to say amazingness here. So we're going to continue to go together. But the so called power negotiation is a strategy and it's not about it's not about being a jerk, it's not at all about it's about saying the right thing to the right person and standing in your own true power. And there are four, four questions or four words that you need to ask the question, then on average, give somebody $10,000 more just by asking this, but you can't demand a higher amount of salary, unless you believe you're worthy of it and position yourself as the candidate choice if you've applied and you're like, Okay, I hope that they'll give me an increase in salary. They're probably like, you know what, there's 20, more of you. Like, I've got a whole bunch of other options here. Now, you're lucky to work for us. Instead, when they go, we cannot operate this business, like Abby is the most strategic investment we can make with our money right now. And we would be lucky to have her on board. That is the candidate of choice, and that's when we will pay more money. And like we're talking like $10,000 more, that's $833 a month. Like it has nothing to a business. Okay, if it's for people, it seems like a lot. It is not when we make an investment that can create millions and return. Do you believe that you're capable of doing that you're able to create this massive return on your investment and your salary? Yeah, okay. Yes. Okay, so when we do that, then we become the candidate of choice. Okay. So that is the entire path I'm going to walk through again. So the first one is markedly mindset. The next is your resume Oh, sorry, is your career clarity and then is your resume then is your LinkedIn after that it's your personal brand after that is your network. And then from there as your actual interview, and the key part of that interview is the elevator pitch. And last is salary negotiation. When we do this, this is the secret, this is the entire pathway. I'm giving it all to you guys. This is how you do this. This is how you show up as the candidate of choice. Okay. So when you look at that, what would you say? Are some of the big ones and I have my own ideas around it? What are the biggest challenges for you? When you look at that piece? Hmm.

Abby 45:45

Probably honestly, the first part, I think I'm not getting past step one. So let's start not

Lindsay 45:51

so rarely, rarely does somebody actually see that they're like, when I can look at I can troubleshoot across the original, like, apply interview offer, okay? So like, wherever you're at, if you're not getting calls back, your Something is wrong. One market only clarity and resume, right. Like, that's the big thing. And really, you have to go deeper, because whatever energy you put out there, like we tend to bring that back to us, we have to have clarity on what we're trying to do. And then we have to have a resume that embodies that. Okay, when I told you the resume doesn't work majority of the time, so it's not the answer, but we can look at it probably because you've had enough of a sample size to say that actually doesn't work. Okay. So I do believe that clarity is going to be a really well one. Always mindset like mindset is the secret here. So we're going to dig deep into that. Next is going to be like, let's get really clear on who you are and what you have to offer the world because it's incredibly powerful. So that's the clarity. And then after that is going to be the resume. Okay, so those are gonna be the big things. Now, how you show up, like when somebody gets to talk to you about you are incredibly likable, you're great congeniality like and really, I want to give you a secret here, guys. Nobody cares about your qualifications, they care about how likable you are. This is why interviews are not a good future indication of performance. All right. And that's not just me saying that, that study after study, but we like to put people through interrogations and these processes where people interview for weeks and months, even in some cases, and we interrogate them, and hope that they can perform. And then we wonder why they're not successful on the job is because they were great in the interview, maybe not so great in the actual embodiment of the work that needs to be done. So just know that same process happens. Okay, so we're going to work on that together. So we're going to continue this. Abby, I'm really, really excited for you guys. To get to watch her journey. How do you feel?

Abby 47:28

I'm excited, honestly, like, you know, and I told you as well, like, even if I feel like something will come up, that's I have full confidence. Like, I know that this this happened serendipitously, like this is supposed to, this is supposed to happen, when it happened, how it happened. And not even for myself. But I was excited when you said you wanted to go live and provide feedback, which I know maybe kind of difficult for a lot of people but for me, like, I I'm not into spinning my wheels and wasting my time like, so if there's a better way that I need to apply myself then like, let's do that. And everyone gets to come along with me. So all these people that resonated with things that I wrote, are also getting, you know, the How to so I think this is going to be really powerful. And I'm excited for all of us.

Lindsay 48:14

Yeah, let's help us help as many people as we possibly can here. Okay, so it opened it up for talking to Abby, I realized how much help needs to happen out there. And I'm in the process of rebranding, lots of things. So I don't know, I'm going to open this again. But it's dream job bootcamp. And this is five days, the most core things you need to do to move the dial inside of your job search, and I want you to go dream job hack, dream job. hack.com slash boot camp. One word, okay. So dreamed up hack slash boot camp, it is open, I opened 500 spots, and about 25% of them were taken yesterday. So they went really quickly. And that's just a way for you to move the dial right now. And it's totally free. So if you're not getting a call back, if you're not interviewing at your highest level, if you don't have a resume, that makes sense. If you don't have your LinkedIn, get a lot of these answers answered right now before we go into the next sessions, because this is where you can answer some of those or ask some of those bigger questions. Okay. Here is my my story is much deeper than what it is cuz I just watched millions of people apply, like I looked at over a million resumes by the end of my career, but each of those people are individual human backslash, boot camp, you are my hero, okay? Is that those are individual people. Because what happens is we all have a family and a lot of times we have our whole life trying to work in our job, and we go home to what really matters. But what if you could do work every day where you feel energized, excited and motivated. You got to work that fills your soul. You feel that passion, purpose, pursuit and profitability for yourself, do you think you could live your best life? That is? Exactly how could you like it's simple. It's the most important point for me. So what I do is i'm not just tapping into like how to have a better job. I want you to go to your true purpose here. That's what I'm looking to do.

Abby 49:57

So I'm so excited. Thank you so much. All right, well

Lindsay 50:00

thank you so much for being here and showing your your truest self with us and I'm so appreciate you and being so brave and you just let me know what else I can do to help you. Okay, awesome. All right, I'll talk to you later.