1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,600 What LinkedIn does for you, they issue you a bleached white skeleton of yourself. 2 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:09,680 So they issue that to you and then what is expected is over time. 3 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:12,800 It is your job to add muscle, tendance. 4 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:16,480 If you want a high-performing team, you have to really learn to listen. 5 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:23,520 Bigger the project and the more involved and the different teams that are involved, 6 00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:27,440 you've got to keep all stakeholders up to date on what's going on. 7 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:31,360 You don't really need to train a high-performing team. What you have to do is try to 8 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:36,400 listen and bring out the best in every individual and how they can contribute to the team. 9 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:40,640 The most important thing about LinkedIn is your profile because if you've been in time 10 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:45,440 on other stuff, so people want to come back and say, "Okay, let me see who this Melissa person is." 11 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:51,920 How you tell the story and that's why storytelling is so important and the structure to it. 12 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:56,720 Welcome to the Executive Connect podcast. 13 00:00:56,720 --> 00:01:02,960 I'm your host, Melissa Arskot and today I'm excited to talk with Joseph Frankie III, 14 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:09,520 a West Point graduate, a combat veteran, a coach, and a LinkedIn thought leader. 15 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:13,200 Welcome to the show, Joe. Hey, Melissa, thanks for having me. 16 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:20,000 I'm so excited to talk to you. It's, I love your background and your career. 17 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:25,040 You have such a diverse background from military and corporate, 18 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:30,960 in your experience, what are some key ingredients of a high-performing team and leadership? 19 00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:38,560 I always go back to some of the basics, right? If you want a high-performing team, 20 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:45,200 you have to really learn to listen, okay? Because you don't really need to train a high-performing team. 21 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:51,840 What you have to do is try to listen and bring out the best in every individual and how they can 22 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:57,920 contribute to the team. And then secondly, you know, if you're choosing or trying to make a team, 23 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:04,320 always try to pick people that are much smarter than me because if I'm the smartest guy in the room, 24 00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:14,480 we have a problem. So true. I think that's a great, a great nugget is up to level your circle. 25 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:21,040 And one of the things I love and appreciate about you is your adaptability and how many times 26 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:27,280 you've changed and learned in this fast-paced world we're all living in. So from your perspective, 27 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:34,560 how can leaders build those teams without compromising, you know, their relationships internally, 28 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:41,360 changing circumstances, AI technology, all the things that leaders are up against these days were 29 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:48,160 remote employees. So how can they really build teams in a way where everybody's working together and 30 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:55,760 evolving? Well, I think we're right back to listening, right? Because the reason somebody can't 31 00:02:55,760 --> 00:03:02,400 produce is maybe they need some technology on their end. If they're remote workers, maybe they need 32 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:10,080 some help with this or that timing of when people are available, you know, in today's world makes a 33 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:17,120 big difference. I mean, some people are mourning people, some people are, you know, get their 34 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:27,840 creativity later on. And the question becomes is how adaptable can we, the team, be to try to 35 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:37,280 accommodate everybody? And you can't do everything. And all the team needs to recognize is that we're all 36 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:45,920 trying, you know, to do the best things that we can do to make the team productive. In other words, 37 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:52,560 in other words, you know, people do not wake up in the morning and say, I want to go to work and do 38 00:03:52,560 --> 00:04:02,880 a bad job. You know, so usually there's a lot of things going on. In fact, you know, most recent 39 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:09,520 topic that I was in Austin was about how reorganizations are doing. And you know, that has to do with, 40 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:16,000 you know, your particular team. I've got three different clients right now that are going through 41 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:23,840 reorganization or whatever euphemism you want to label that with. But stuff is a foot. It's changing, 42 00:04:23,840 --> 00:04:30,880 you know, the organization is going to re-adapt, you know, take resources either in labor, money, 43 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:38,880 and, you know, redevote that into areas that they think are prudent. And two of those are just absolute 44 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:46,960 disasters, you know, and, you know, what I'm trying to do with the clients is extricate them, get 45 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:54,080 another opportunity because they just realize that this, you know, their team's not productive, 46 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:57,920 they've got no communication, they don't know where the organization is headed, they don't know if 47 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:04,480 they're part of it, all that kind of stuff. In contrast to another one where it's really going well, 48 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:10,480 all the leadership's involved at all levels, they're transparent in their communications, you know, 49 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:16,000 that's hard work to be transparent on multiple levels where, you know, you're getting it from the 50 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:23,760 company, you're getting basically the same message, both verbally and in writing from, you know, 51 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:33,600 your supervisors and they're actually letting the rank and file make decisions on how they need to 52 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:42,560 adapt and change to achieve those particular objectives. It's not easy, it's hard work and everybody's 53 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:51,920 got to be involved, but that's one example. Yeah, that's a really good example. I know that you've worked 54 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:59,520 on projects that are worth billion the dollars and lead teams, 50,000 or more. In your experience, 55 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:05,360 what is one of the biggest leadership challenges that you faced and what did you learn from it? 56 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:14,240 I think communication is the biggest challenge, the bigger the project and the more involved and 57 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:21,440 the different teams that are involved, you've got to keep all stakeholders, you know, up to date on 58 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:28,560 what's going on and, you know, even with all the King's horses and all the King's men, you know, 59 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:37,520 you're still going to fail at that in certain areas, but the fact that you try to use multiple 60 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:44,960 communication channels to keep stuff up to date is absolutely key. And the bigger the project, 61 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:51,200 the harder it is to measure whether you're making any difference or you're moving this 62 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:55,760 thing along because the more strategic it is, I mean, you probably can't measure it for a year. 63 00:06:55,760 --> 00:07:03,680 You know, it's just, you know, the smaller it gets, you can see stuff happen, you know, relatively 64 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:10,160 quickly, but the bigger it is, the harder it is to put in, what are the metrics? I mean, how are we 65 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:16,640 moving this needle? You know, and naturally leadership always wants these reports on, yeah, 66 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:22,560 hey, we've invested all this money, what are we going to get from it? And you've really got to be 67 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:30,640 a good communicator to keep everybody, you know, together and heading in the right directions. 68 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:38,640 If you don't put those aspects in place before you start, then you start the project and then 69 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:45,680 you're hurting cats. And it's not pretty. Are you a high-income professional? Looking for smarter ways 70 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:51,760 to protect your wealth? The Texas Freedom Fund gives you the opportunity to invest in energy assets 71 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:58,480 leveraging proven fracking technology and prime access to global markets. With strategic oil and gas 72 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:04,080 investments, you can build real wealth while benefiting from tax advantages under laws, dating back to 73 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:12,400 the Reagan era. Take control of your financial future. Visit Texas Freedom Fund.executiveconnectpodcast.com. 74 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:19,520 Yeah, and I think that's a really good thing to unpack communication. We're in a really fast-paced 75 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:26,240 world. You know, there's constant pop-ups, there's constant things coming at us. A lot of time 76 00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:32,240 is I find, I sit in meetings and, you know, all here people say, "Okay, you got it go." And I'm, 77 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:38,960 you know, I'm looking at my notepad and I'm like, "Okay, I think I got it." And like you said, 78 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:46,560 a lot is lost. The way that people are communicating now is, I think of it like a pie chart. We're getting 79 00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:53,840 a lot of information, but maybe not a full piece of the pie chart to understand what our part is 80 00:08:53,840 --> 00:09:00,240 with whatever we're being talked to at. And so a lot of times I like to finish communication 81 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:07,040 and revisit, you know, "John, you're doing this, Susie, you're doing that." Any questions, if you 82 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:12,560 need support, reach out to me. And I like to make sure everyone's clear, but I know, like you said, 83 00:09:12,560 --> 00:09:18,960 for myself, I've been a part of those many, many meetings where I looked out on my paper and I think 84 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:23,440 to myself, I don't, I don't, I don't got it. I don't understand. I think I understand, but, 85 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:28,560 you know, one of the things I learned is if you don't understand and you're not really good at 86 00:09:28,560 --> 00:09:35,280 communication, we need to practice it. I think a lot of times when people are working remote, 87 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:43,920 or they're working, you know, in silos, not in a team constantly, we kind of lose some of those 88 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:50,640 communication skills. So I like to suggest to people go to networking events, get in places where 89 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:57,680 you're using that dialogue to communicate with people. And so I want to kind of unpack what you 90 00:09:57,680 --> 00:10:04,320 said a little bit about, you know, making sure stakeholders are aware, like in that example, 91 00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:09,840 I look down at my pad and I know that I don't understand what's going on, but I know my piece of the 92 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:16,160 puzzle is going to affect all the people that are involved in that team. So from your perspective, 93 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:23,840 share it with our listeners some ways that people can make sure that they're, you know, 94 00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:26,880 they're collaborating with those stakeholders that you mentioned. 95 00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:32,880 Well, I think you mentioned a very, very important tool, which I, 96 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:38,080 the military calls it a back brief. You sat through a mission order, you know, 97 00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:44,720 you know, and it's got a very structured standard to it, you know, we called it the five-paragraph order, 98 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:49,120 where you, all right, what's the mission? Here's the things that affect it. Here's the logistics, 99 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:55,760 here's the communication, all those kind of things. But you've listened to that. And so I think 100 00:10:55,760 --> 00:11:04,800 good leaders say, okay, you know, we put this plan mission together, okay, what did you hear from that? 101 00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:13,360 And the back brief is, okay, that you're listening to what their interpretation is. And just like you 102 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:19,040 say, it gets straightened out, you know, right then and there. The other technique that I 103 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:28,880 saw one of the CEOs I worked for, especially the upper leadership from seven in the morning to 715 104 00:11:28,880 --> 00:11:36,000 was a stand-up and there was about six of us in there. And he just went around to all six of us and 105 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:41,920 we each had about a minute. And, you know, if we needed something from him, that was the time to, 106 00:11:41,920 --> 00:11:50,000 you know, to kind of say that. And we didn't even sit down. You were in there with your three-by-five 107 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:56,160 card or your pad, you know, on what you were going to say. And the boy had to be condensed, you know, because 108 00:11:56,160 --> 00:12:02,720 you know, we were off to the races. But what I found is as everybody got conditioned, used to 109 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:11,120 gosh, what a saving of time, you know, a lot of that stuff, you know, because you and I were talking a 110 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:17,600 little bit earlier, but I mean, you can get a lot of communication really quick face-to-face 111 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:25,760 because you've got all the non-verbal communication, everything's working and just think about how much 112 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:34,080 email we'd have to put together. And then send it to the collective group before you take it to the 113 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:40,480 leader, right? And that's a really good point. I want to separate what you're saying and unpack that. 114 00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:47,600 So face-to-face, we're able to use all of our senses. We can tell tone, we can tell body language, 115 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:54,800 we can understand people much better than email. I know I've been the recipient of emails that, 116 00:12:54,800 --> 00:13:00,800 you know, I didn't take offense to and I'd have a peer call me and say, oh my god, can you believe 117 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:08,000 that email? And I'm, and what I didn't take offense to was short succinct to the point. Other people did, 118 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:15,280 and they extracted from an email, a motion, and things that I believe they should have, because 119 00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:22,160 email is much different with emotions than standing in front of a person. So I always tell people, 120 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:28,320 if you get an email, don't read into a get clarification or call up that person on the phone or 121 00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:36,240 call them up in teams. And you can use more of your senses versus words. Like people like me, I'm a 122 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:43,520 very, I'm an engineer, brain kind of, kind of gal. I'm not wordy in email, but a lot of other people may 123 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:51,120 be wordy and clearly able to communicate what they, what their ask is. So I want to also mention 124 00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:58,000 another really great point that you met made a lot of, a lot of them meet in these meetings. Like you 125 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:04,560 said, 60 seconds to debrief a lot of these meetings that I've been sitting in over the years. The 126 00:14:04,560 --> 00:14:11,040 meat of the meeting is towards the end where there's action, there's clarity. And so I find a lot of 127 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:16,480 times I'll do exactly what we just talked about. You know, here's your piece, here's your piece, 128 00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:21,760 everybody's clear. And I'm not kidding you minutes later, I'll get a team's message or an email, 129 00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:29,520 hey, what was my, what was my peace? So for all the people that are not able to focus for 30 minutes 130 00:14:29,520 --> 00:14:36,800 or an hour, really paying attention to the end and making sure before you hang up that call that 131 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:43,120 you're clear and not be fearful to ask during that call because your leaders and your 132 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:48,320 superiors may be on to other things that they might not be able to circle back with you. And so like 133 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:57,360 you said, getting your 60 second point to the St. in organized is going to pay so much 134 00:14:57,360 --> 00:15:06,240 down the road in your career. Well, and secondly, you know, you're in a group setting, 135 00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:12,160 you know, you're either prepared or you're not and it becomes painfully obvious to the casual 136 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:17,680 observer, you know. So always tell people, I said, you know, you know, you're going to a meeting, 137 00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:23,040 I mean, you got to be ready and have your best put forward. And that's planning from your end, 138 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:28,160 that because you have no idea when you get in the meeting that you might be reacting to something 139 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:35,040 you didn't know about. I mean, that's your first thing. And I always say, they say, well, 140 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:40,480 you know, they say, hey, Joe, you're going to the meeting with what you hope to accomplish. And a lot 141 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:47,120 of times I say, I'm just going to go there. My job is to not let anybody take my stuff, you know, 142 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:51,280 because you know, meetings deal with resources, right? 143 00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:59,520 100% yeah. So I said, I said, you know, I'm going to attend that meeting. Well, why don't you send 144 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:06,560 someone so? And I said, no, at that level, if somebody else is not there, I don't mind taking his 145 00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:11,280 or her stuff either. If that's what, you know, we're dividing the pie here on something. 146 00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:19,040 Yeah, it's a really good point is just collaboration, right? And communication, I think, you know, 147 00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:25,360 it's something we all need to work at. And I find that the older I get, the more things are going 148 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:31,600 on in my brain between family and kids and extracurricular activity, you know, my aging parents and 149 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:39,600 everything I've got going on in my life. So really being clear as we pivot from different facets of 150 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:45,440 our life and communicating with, you know, the ones that we love and the ones that we work with is 151 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:52,560 going to be very important. Speaking of communications, I want to talk a little bit about LinkedIn, 152 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:59,600 all things LinkedIn. I know myself, you know, I was this flow adopter of LinkedIn. And now I'm fast 153 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:07,040 and furious on LinkedIn. And I know you're a LinkedIn thought leader and you've coached people on LinkedIn. 154 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:13,920 I want to get your perspective on why people still struggle to leverage LinkedIn and maybe some 155 00:17:13,920 --> 00:17:22,480 advice for people on ways they can leverage LinkedIn. The way I look at LinkedIn from 156 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:27,600 from this standpoint, when we went day one, when we first got on it, whenever that day was for you, 157 00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:35,360 really all to get on LinkedIn, what you need is your name and like, a job. I mean, it's pretty basic, 158 00:17:35,360 --> 00:17:40,720 you know, and then the idea is, okay, we got you here. And, you know, at some point in time, 159 00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:46,800 you're going to build this out. So I look at it is what LinkedIn does for you, they issue you a 160 00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:55,120 bleached white skeleton of yourself, okay? Just like the one we saw in the sixth grade science thing 161 00:17:55,120 --> 00:18:00,960 that hangs on the side of the science room, you know. And so they issue that to you. And then what 162 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:09,440 is expected is over time. It is your job to add muscle ligaments, tendons. And if you think about 163 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:14,000 how many different muscles there are in your body, that's how many different things you can add 164 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:22,720 onto a LinkedIn profile. I mean, people basically, I'd say, 95% of the people who use LinkedIn, 165 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:29,760 like the above the fold of the front page of the Wall Street Journal. But LinkedIn can be 166 00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:35,600 the entire Wall Street Journal. In other words, above the fold, below the fold pages, you know, 167 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:43,360 two through 17, op-ed section, you know, finance section, etc, etc, etc. And so, 168 00:18:43,360 --> 00:18:50,880 I'm a big believer in to using it with all its capability because it gives you the ability 169 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:59,840 to tell story after story that you solve problems. Because if you can't solve problems, 170 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:07,200 I mean, there's no reason for you to be employed because what is an employer want or if you as an 171 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:12,880 entrepreneur, what are you doing? I mean, you are solving, you know, some sort of customer satisfaction 172 00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:20,960 objective. Otherwise, there's no purpose. And so LinkedIn gives you all these other pages, all these 173 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:26,720 other sections to tell those stories and many times are not used. I mean, for example, 174 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:34,080 you're using the volunteer section. I mean, you've got maybe 16, 17 things that, you know, you're 175 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:39,920 volunteering on. And you know, that is great because a lot of people are not using it to that depth. 176 00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:47,280 But if I was going to say something for you, I said the volunteer section gives you 2,000 characters 177 00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:55,440 to tell what you do as a volunteer, how you made a difference. You know, who, what, when, where, 178 00:19:55,440 --> 00:20:01,280 why, how, and the metrics, you know, as Rudyard Kipling would say, those are the five people you need 179 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:10,240 to know. So, those questions. So, I look at LinkedIn as a place to tell story after story. 180 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,800 And you say, well, okay, if I tell all those stories that, you know, there's a lot of stuff there. 181 00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:21,280 And what I'm saying is, how does LinkedIn work? You're in a content war with whoever you think your 182 00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:30,160 peer is. And the better content you have and the more content that you have, the higher you come up 183 00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:37,840 in a search. And it's all about the algorithm. And some people say, well, I don't understand about 184 00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:45,920 that. And I say, well, let me give you a visual. And he says, okay, I says, right now you're a coronavirus. 185 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:54,080 I'm a coronavirus. We got a little sphere, right? Yeah, I got that. And I said, so every story you tell, 186 00:20:54,080 --> 00:21:00,960 you add a little mushroom on your sphere. So, do you want to be a mushroom? I mean, do you want to be 187 00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:09,840 a coronavirus with one sphere? It means you have to go find the one in 100,000 that you link up with, 188 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:15,040 or do you want to have a sphere with an infinite number of mushrooms where you can affect one out of 10 189 00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:22,720 people? Because you never know what rings somebody's bell. For example, and I learned this years ago, 190 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:30,640 I've this guy contacted me, he said, Joe, he said, you know, I found you and, you know, I want you to see if 191 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:35,760 you can solve a problem. I said, well, how did you find me? And he said, well, I found you on LinkedIn 192 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:42,640 because you're a blood donor. You know, so I'm thinking, okay, that's in my volunteer section. I mean, 193 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:48,000 what relevance is that? And he said, Joe, I mean, I have a daughter and she requires frequent blood 194 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:54,480 transfusions. So what I've done is I've decided that, you know, if I can, I'm going to do business 195 00:21:54,480 --> 00:22:01,200 with blood donors. My point is, nowhere else than the planet, would anybody know that I'm a blood donor 196 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:09,040 except on a LinkedIn profile? And so the point I try to say everybody is you have your own perception 197 00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:16,000 of what you think is important. That is not relevant to another human being. Everybody's 198 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:23,520 got a different bell that rings them and motivates them to do stuff. And my point is tell story after 199 00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:31,840 story and you'll, you have a better chance of finding somebody. You and I normally would love to do 200 00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:40,240 that in conversation. Okay, but that's that's additive, right? We're having a conversation, 201 00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:47,520 that's the way it's been since the payroll, right? But now you have this exponential ability to have 202 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:54,400 coffee 137 times a day virtually. And you're not even there and you don't even know what's happening. 203 00:22:54,400 --> 00:23:03,200 And my point is show up, you know, well dressed groomed like you're going to meet somebody. Or if you're 204 00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:07,760 just going to have this profile that's kind of like you're in beach shorts with a torn shirt and 205 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:13,120 going to show up in flip-flops, you know, just put your best foot forward just bottom line. 206 00:23:13,120 --> 00:23:19,840 Yeah, that's a really great point, you know, that the analogy when you were saying this birds of a 207 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:26,000 feather flock together, I forget who says that, said that saying, but that's an exact really good point 208 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:33,200 that you were saying is people, you know, I know when I started opening myself up on LinkedIn, 209 00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:36,880 people, I never knew you played sports. I never knew you had kids. I never knew. 210 00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:45,840 And people's perspective changed literally overnight when I started putting stuff online. And it's funny, 211 00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:53,040 people, you know, my LinkedIn has changed year over year over year based on the people that engage 212 00:23:53,040 --> 00:24:01,600 with me or what they ask for me and kind of how I live my life. So I've really listened in to the people 213 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:07,440 that follow me and what they want to hear. And so I love that you're you're talking about that. I want to 214 00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:15,760 talk a little bit about your LinkedIn, your book LinkedIn, the five minute drill. Can you break down 215 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:24,000 for our executives that are listening, networking and into a simple process and maybe walk us through 216 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:31,520 some steps professionals can take? Who are those kind of skeletons on LinkedIn and they do not 217 00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:37,280 have anything to date on there? I know, you know, for me, it was being comfortable being vulnerable 218 00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:44,880 about who I am. So I had to take that big leap of faith to put myself out there, but maybe you 219 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:51,280 can walk us through those steps leaders can take with their LinkedIn profile. Okay, so LinkedIn, 220 00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:57,360 the five minute drill for executive networking success, you know, the hardest thing was to make it 221 00:24:57,360 --> 00:25:04,240 an hour read. So Lori Ruff and I said, we wanted a person to be able to get on a airplane, 222 00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:09,760 you know, they're there for an hour, they read the book and they could actually take action. So the first 223 00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:16,160 part of the book is for the executives that hate LinkedIn, they don't want to do it, you know, but hey, 224 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:22,240 they they they smart enough to know that they have to be out there, right? I mean, somebody's telling 225 00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:27,840 them, hey, sir, you know, you're the front, you're the front leading face of this organization, 226 00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:34,320 you know, you got to be out here here in, you know, other social media. So, but the bottom line 227 00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:43,920 was to give them a five minute drill to go into LinkedIn so that their presence was known, right? 228 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:51,680 Even if it wasn't, you know, they're adding all this content. Let's face it, the top five percent of 229 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:58,000 CEOs, they have marketing departments and, you know, there is professional people doing all that, 230 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:05,520 but for the rest of us mere mortals out of here, you know, we got, we got to saddle up and ride the 231 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:13,680 horse, you know? So what it was was a step by step thing of how to go into LinkedIn and was a five minute 232 00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:19,520 checklist, you know, and I had one executive call me up and he said, Joe, this takes more than five 233 00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:25,280 minutes and I said, well, you're not following, you're not following the checklist. And he goes, 234 00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:32,320 what do you mean? I said, it says go here, do this, go here, do this, go here, do this. And I said, 235 00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:39,920 you try it for two weeks and you don't do anything other than that checklist. And he calls me back and 236 00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:44,640 he said, Joe, you're right. He said, but once I get in there, I want to do other stuff. I said, 237 00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:50,160 that's your decision, you know, everybody wanted a five minute drill so they didn't have any of their 238 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:56,240 time taken up. But, you know, what I would say to you is you might need a five-dryl minute drill in 239 00:26:56,240 --> 00:27:02,080 the morning, you know, if you want to do one midday or not fine or one at the end of the day and what 240 00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:08,320 happened is, you know, you've got that day kind of covered. So in other words, they're looking at, 241 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:14,400 okay, who said something on their posts, they're like it, somebody, one of their friends 242 00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:19,760 another CEO said something so maybe you want to go like it or if you're knowledgeable, you make a one 243 00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:25,440 sentence comment or something like that. So it was just the rudimentary things of how to go in there 244 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:36,160 if you're not LinkedIn savvy without, you know, doing something stupid. I look at LinkedIn when you 245 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:42,160 first get on it, you know, you're kind of wheeled in it like a sword, you know, it's too handed, it's 246 00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:47,680 not very daft and you get a little bit smarter with it. Now we've got a saber that we can move around. 247 00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:53,440 But where you're headed in the power of LinkedIn is when you can use it like a scalpel. 248 00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:59,920 But what we have is too many people using a sword to do brain surgery. 249 00:27:59,920 --> 00:28:08,400 And, you know, you get the results of when you use a sword to do brain surgery. So my point is, 250 00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:15,360 when LinkedIn's come a long way, it's almost self teaching now, you know, with all the little suggested 251 00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:21,840 tools in there, you can ask a little question over here. I mean, when we first got on that, you just 252 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:30,400 kind of had to not get out and learn by trial and error. But now it's very educational. There's a lot of 253 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:36,720 information out there, you know, for example, our book in the back, you know, okay, you want to learn 254 00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:44,960 more. Here's a number of other, you know, resources to hone the tool. What's funny is I wrote this book 255 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:48,800 for the executives and it's been used in high school business classes. 256 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:58,480 And that's a really good place for it to start. I think starting young with your branding is 257 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:04,960 really important. I think our, I know my branding has changed all the time through my life in my 258 00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:12,880 career, where I started at, at high school in, in the banking space, I'm year the way from that. And so 259 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:18,320 I think getting out there and explaining the different facets of who you are and what you're 260 00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:24,320 made of on the inside, we forget sometimes. Oh, wow, back then I used to do that. I totally forgot 261 00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:29,760 about it. But if there's not a place that you're putting off it, as we get older and older, 262 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:36,880 we have more things in our mind and more things going on, we tend to forget some things. I want to talk 263 00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:43,360 a little bit. You made a comment about the five minute drill. So for me, it was hard to do my five 264 00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:50,800 minutes, 10 minutes every day that I was on social. So I bundle all my drills on the weekend and get 265 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:57,440 all my stuff that I'm posting for the next week done on the weekend. So when I hit Monday for work, 266 00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:05,200 I'm ready to go with all my activities that I'm doing. And so if you're a person that can't do it, 267 00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:09,520 you know, right before you start the day or at the end of the day for the next day, 268 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:16,560 organize it in a way that works best for your schedule. I think, you know, I correlated to exercising 269 00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:23,520 for me. I used to be like a nighttime exerciseer and now with children, I don't have the cycles to 270 00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:31,280 exercise it. And I'm now morning exerciseer. So with social, being able to pivot on what works best 271 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:38,560 for you is going to be key and sustaining your presence on the line. I want to follow up a question 272 00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:46,320 for you and just get your perspective on the way you think people are misusing LinkedIn and how 273 00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:55,760 they can fix it. Well, the most important thing I think about LinkedIn is your profile. I mean, you know, 274 00:30:55,760 --> 00:31:01,760 it's kind of like if you're going to run a race, you got to start at the beginning of the race, right? 275 00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:08,480 There's a beginning and an end. So I think the most important thing is spend the time on your profile 276 00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:14,080 because if you spend time on other stuff, so people want to come back and say, okay, let me see who 277 00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:22,160 this Melissa person is, right? Well, you know, do you do you want to be in flip flops, you know, a 278 00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:29,040 torn shirt and tennis shoes or, you know, I mean, you already want to be AJ square-to-way business person 279 00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:36,240 and you know, you can see it from it's all laid out here for you. So I think the biggest problem 280 00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:45,040 people have is they look at LinkedIn, right? And the way LinkedIn is organized like anything that's in 281 00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:52,320 depth is it was LinkedIn 101, 201, 301, 401, 501, 601. And I get all these organizations call me say, 282 00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:56,160 "Jo, I want you to come here. We're going to give you this insane amount of money and I want you to 283 00:31:56,160 --> 00:32:02,880 give them to our, you know, I want you to train them on LinkedIn." And I say, "Save your money." I said, 284 00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:07,600 "I'm not going to, I'm going to do that." He said, "But I will work with the individuals." He said, 285 00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:12,480 "Well, why do you do that?" I said, "I can give an orientation on LinkedIn." But unless we're going to 286 00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:20,240 put all the 101 people in a room, the 201 people in a room, in the 301, and oh, by the way, nobody needs 287 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:26,480 more than 301 to get what they want. You know, there's PhD level LinkedIn out there, but, you know, 288 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:32,640 so what? I mean, for people to get what they want is right at the cost of what I call 301. 289 00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:39,360 And if you went to give any subject where somebody is going to give you training and you're in 290 00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:46,240 this room, you know, for an hour, and oh, by the way, you already know that stuff six ways from Sunday. 291 00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:53,600 I mean, your productivity would be best placed elsewhere. And secondly, you get people in there that 292 00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:58,640 don't even have a LinkedIn profile versus the people that are at the 401 level want to ask you, 293 00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:05,440 you know, exponential stuff about the algorithm, you know, the person that doesn't even have a profile 294 00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:15,600 is it? That's not me. So I think that's a very individual thing and everybody comes up the way 295 00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:23,200 they're going to. And he said, "Well, I mean, LinkedIn is LinkedIn." I said, "No, it's not." I said, 296 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:31,040 LinkedIn is IQ and it's EQ. And they said, "Well, what's this EQ stuff?" And I said, "Look, 297 00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:39,360 when you give somebody a resume, it's a black and white snapshot of who they are and it's about 95% IQ." 298 00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:45,040 Right? This is what, "Hey, this is what you've done. This is the problems you've solved, all this stuff." 299 00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:51,360 But LinkedIn is an oil portrait of yourself. It's not a black and white photograph. 300 00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:57,200 It's an oil portrait. It's in color. There's brush strokes on it. There's hue. There's tint. 301 00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:04,320 All of the kind of things that you want to describe about yourself, it gives you the capability to do it. 302 00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:10,240 Just like the example I give where the CEO calls me up because I'm a blood donor, that's not because 303 00:34:10,240 --> 00:34:18,640 I solved a problem in business. That's because emotionally I chose to donate blood, right? It's an 304 00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:27,760 emotional connection that he made with me that started a conversation, which we might lead to business 305 00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:35,200 may not. And over the last 10 years, that's been two different people. And that's where I really got, 306 00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:45,680 it really reinforced in me is everything that you know you do that's important to you or whatever 307 00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:51,600 you want to put out there, put out there because you have no clue what rings somebody else's bell. 308 00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:57,440 And see, we have this filter that we're going to put up and say, "Well, this is what I think." 309 00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:02,960 You know, well, it's not important what you think. It's what other people find. For example, 310 00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:11,360 another example, I'd say the most money that I've ever made off of LinkedIn comes from my 311 00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:13,120 high school education entry. 312 00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:23,920 And people say, "Well, why is that important?" And it's because people want to go back and, 313 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:28,240 "Okay, what's the lowest common denominator that we all had?" Well, if we're on LinkedIn, 314 00:35:28,240 --> 00:35:33,120 we graduate from high school because you got to be able to read and write, you know, to be on LinkedIn. 315 00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:38,080 And then it's all that other stuff like I'll get somebody call me and say, "Hey Joe, I was 316 00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:42,560 offensive center in high school." Well, the only place they could know that is it's on LinkedIn 317 00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:48,240 profile. "Hey, I got my pilot's license when I went to high school. Hey, you know, I got my scuba diving 318 00:35:48,240 --> 00:35:53,760 certification, you know, when I was in high school." I did poetry interpretation in high school. I 319 00:35:53,760 --> 00:36:00,080 played tennis, all those kind of things. So education gives you a thousand characters in the description 320 00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:09,600 block, you know, and the idea is if LinkedIn gives me, you know, a bone off that skeleton, then it's my job, 321 00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:16,880 you know, to put muscle ligaments and tendons there. And so what you have is a lot of people on LinkedIn, 322 00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:21,760 they might have a, you know, beautiful head of hair and all this stuff, but then they got a 323 00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:29,600 bleached white skeleton. The idea is, you know, that I suggest, you know, because there's 324 00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:36,320 counter arguments to this, too. Some people say, "All you need is a list of your titles and responsibility, 325 00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:42,480 and that's all you need there." And I'd say, "Well, you know, this algorithm, if other people got the 326 00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:47,280 same thing you've got, and they've got some meat hung there, then you've come up higher because this 327 00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:55,920 thing's looking for words, right?" And, you know, a noun in a verb is the basic element that it's 328 00:36:55,920 --> 00:37:01,840 searching for, the action in a description. And noun in verbs make up sentences, sentences make up 329 00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:10,160 paragraphs, and paragraphs tell a story. So I think people just ought to tell story after story, 330 00:37:10,160 --> 00:37:14,240 about the problems they solve. And that's what happens to me. Somebody calls me up and said, "Jo, 331 00:37:14,240 --> 00:37:21,920 you know, you know, you probably've handled one of the most unstructured projects in the world, 332 00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:26,800 and I have the same thing. I don't know if you can help me, but let's have a discussion." I said, 333 00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:31,600 "What makes you think I can help you?" He said, "Well, you know, you handled the 334 00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:38,000 Kursk Russian submarine rescue operation from a transportation, and the story was interesting, 335 00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:44,560 because you didn't have any policy in dealing with Russian." You know, there's no manual that says, 336 00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:49,840 "Okay, this is how we're going to rescue this Russian submarine." So all the people that worked on it, 337 00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:56,160 and, you know, I'm just one, but my job was to help in the transportation of assets and people 338 00:37:56,160 --> 00:38:01,200 to get to a certain place. Bottom line is they never called and asked for that. They let those people 339 00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:07,760 die down there, which is a different story. But my point is, that story is on my LinkedIn profile 340 00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:13,120 in a project, because that's what it was. It was a Kursk Russian submarine rescue operation project. 341 00:38:13,120 --> 00:38:20,400 It had a start, it had an end, and there was a story. And so people look at that and say, "Well, 342 00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:25,840 I have this really complicated project. Can you help me with this?" And some I could. And some, 343 00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:30,960 you know, I said, "Hey, I don't have that depth of experience. Why don't you go over here?" 344 00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:36,560 But there was never any tool before LinkedIn where you can hang that out there, 345 00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:44,480 and somebody could find it. And what you really wanting LinkedIn is somebody to message you or call you, 346 00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:49,520 and either you can help them or not. And if I can't help them, I refer them to who I think 347 00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:57,920 can help them. But from that perspective, I think it's a world-class, too. Second piece of that is 348 00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:05,040 it's owned by Microsoft. So it's not going to ever be short of any money when it needs to, okay, 349 00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:11,760 this is a really good competing piece like Linda, you know, went out there and bought the education piece 350 00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:21,840 and made that LinkedIn education piece. Yeah, and I love that your gear examples. Another example I 351 00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:26,720 want to leave with the listeners is a lot of times I'll hear from people that say, "Gosh, I put 352 00:39:26,720 --> 00:39:32,480 all this work. I put my five minutes in. I'm doing all the work. I'm creating the post. I'm 353 00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:41,120 attaching a picture and I'm not getting any engagement." So they quit. And so I always correlate LinkedIn 354 00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:47,120 and posting like I do the gym. You go to the gym and if you go for a day and you don't get, 355 00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:51,840 you know, you don't drop the weight, you don't gain the muscle, do you quit exercising? 356 00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:59,280 You're not going to be able to gain momentum on your social if you quit. And I promise you to all 357 00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:05,040 the listeners, the people that you think are not paying attention, they are paying attention. 358 00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:10,960 Your colleagues are paying attention. They may not be engaging or interacting or liking or 359 00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:18,400 commenting, but they're paying attention. And over time, when people like you were mentioning, when 360 00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:26,240 people think of, "Oh, I need this problem solved," you become the expert that can solve those problems. 361 00:40:26,240 --> 00:40:32,240 So it's really just a tweak of the mindset. And I think don't quit, don't give up, keep doing it. 362 00:40:32,240 --> 00:40:41,840 It's worth your time. I know I want to pivot. I have to talk about AI now with social media and 363 00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:47,600 all these tools that are being used now. You know, AI is the hottest topic now. I don't see 364 00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:53,920 everyone on my scrolls has something AI or machine learning in it. So I want to get your 365 00:40:54,720 --> 00:41:04,240 perspective on how these tools like chat GPT are going to help or not help. Leaders and executives 366 00:41:04,240 --> 00:41:09,360 build their personal brands and connect with other opportunities. Can you share some insights? 367 00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:14,640 Well, I can. In fact, I got a call yesterday on a Sunday from a client. 368 00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:23,840 I mean, it was hard for me to wrap my mind around what had happened to her. 369 00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:36,480 So basically, the power of AI is, I have been working with her trying to get, 370 00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:44,880 let me just frame this a little bit. Okay, she was born in another country. She's a US citizen and here, 371 00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:53,520 but there's a culture difference. No matter what, you grew up as a child someplace else. 372 00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:57,840 You know, it's a different mindset. So I really had to work with her to get all this 373 00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:05,840 stuff that she had done, you know, and it wasn't natural. You know, to me, LinkedIn naturally works with 374 00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:11,440 American people because American people designed it, right? And they're adapting it. But the bottom 375 00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:21,040 line is this. So we had to get the things that she had done, you know, a lot of it was in another country. 376 00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:27,440 And none of that was merchandise. In other words, she didn't put on there that, you know, she was the head 377 00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:33,920 of engineering, you know, in this country and that a panel had chosen to be the president of this 378 00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:40,480 engineering council, which did engineering decisions for major stuff like bridges and, you know, 379 00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:46,000 things like that. And none of that was on her LinkedIn profile. And I said, you know, hey, you 380 00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:51,520 you don't have the option here, you know, you're, you're in a world-class perspective, but nobody sees that. 381 00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:58,880 So we're still in the process. So what had happened to her is this whole thing, which I'm still trying 382 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:06,000 to get a deep brief on. And if I understood her correctly, I mean, this system went through everything 383 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:15,120 that was ever on her. You know, now we're talking chat GPT find everything on Suzy Smith, you know, 384 00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:23,760 specifically by name, arrayed it, you know, task organized it into what it wanted to know. And a 385 00:43:23,760 --> 00:43:31,840 AI person gave her a phone call that talked to her in a way based on her personality style. 386 00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:41,360 And so like I said, I think, you know, the Wild West is out there. I mean, I haven't wrapped my head 387 00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:49,920 around that, but my point is everything going out here is available, right? So I think whether you like 388 00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:57,040 it or not, this is just an example of somebody's looking for somebody to solve a problem. They're using 389 00:43:57,040 --> 00:44:06,240 a tool, whether that be people or systems. And the more that you have out there, specifically, 390 00:44:06,240 --> 00:44:11,920 that you solve problems, a greater your chance of coming up to the top of that pipe. You know, 391 00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:15,600 because I do executive search and people will say, well, John, I don't want to put that out there. 392 00:44:15,600 --> 00:44:20,560 I said, no, bro, I said, you'll come up three three 75 out of 400. And I'll never see. 393 00:44:20,560 --> 00:44:26,320 He said, well, what do you mean? I said, well, I'm going to deal with the top 40. I'm going to 394 00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:31,120 search for people and I get the top 40. I kind of look at them. Okay, that doesn't work. This 395 00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:36,320 works. Then I rearrange all those search words again and run it again and see who's in the top 40. 396 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:42,560 In the top 40 and 10 different searches, this is probably going to be about 15 of the same people. 397 00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:51,840 And so to me, you have to win the quality content war, you know, on length and, you know, if you 398 00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:59,040 want to be considered for somebody calling you, you know, to solve a problem or, you know, to get, 399 00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:06,880 you know, important. Yeah, I agree with that. And I, you know, I want to kind of pivot a little bit 400 00:45:06,880 --> 00:45:15,200 again in the closing kind of last pieces of our time together. I know this year is a year for so 401 00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:23,360 many of career transitions, change personal growth. I know what I want to do now. I know you've coached 402 00:45:23,360 --> 00:45:30,800 a lot of executives and military veterans who are transitioning into the private sector. And I 403 00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:39,280 want to get your perspective on the mindset shift people need to make when moving from one career path 404 00:45:39,280 --> 00:45:44,560 to another. Say they were in one industry and another or they were, they were working for a company 405 00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:50,400 now, they're self-employed. Any kind of, kind of two parts of that. What's the biggest mind stuff, 406 00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:56,320 just they need to make? And then the second piece of that, what's the biggest mistake people make in 407 00:45:56,320 --> 00:46:04,800 doing that? Well, for example, let's take, okay, oil and gas industry is down. I mean, we're just 408 00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:10,880 going to make that assumption. So now I'm a petroleum engineer and I want to go into mechanical 409 00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:18,400 engineering or aeronautical engineering. Well, the shift is on your, on your LinkedIn profile, 410 00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:26,560 about, you know, 60% of all engineering is engineering, right? Tell me problems. Yeah, so it's only 411 00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:33,200 in the finesse type, you know, you have the specific thing. So you just change the stories that you tell 412 00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:41,040 and how you solve the problem. You talk about the mechanical engineering story and solving a petroleum 413 00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:46,800 engineering problem because when you when you get that engineering, I mean, aeronauticals is the same way. 414 00:46:47,600 --> 00:46:55,360 I mean, it's really about structure, strength, you know, curves, all of those kind of things. And so 415 00:46:55,360 --> 00:47:02,400 it's how you tell the story. And that's why storytelling is so important and the structure to it. 416 00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:09,280 Because like, for example, in a project on LinkedIn, you've only got 2,000 characters. So I mean, 417 00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:14,640 think about it. You got to say, who, what, when, where, how, and what the metrics were. And the other 418 00:47:14,640 --> 00:47:19,600 thing that people don't realize about LinkedIn is what makes you different than somebody else that's 419 00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:25,600 outstanding, you know, because I had this one guy came to me and he said, Hey, Joe, you know, I'm a 420 00:47:25,600 --> 00:47:30,080 world class project manager and I'm just, you know, kind of floundering out here. And I said, okay, 421 00:47:30,080 --> 00:47:34,400 let me take a look at your LinkedIn profile. He said, okay. And I said, well, I'm, I'm not going to 422 00:47:34,400 --> 00:47:39,680 hire it yet. He goes, but Joe, you know me inside now. And I said, but that's the problem. I can't 423 00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:45,920 sell you. I am an exactly recruiter and I can't sell you to a client. And he said, what are you talking 424 00:47:45,920 --> 00:47:50,320 about? He said, well, I'm an outstanding engineer. I work with fortune. I mean, project manager to work 425 00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:58,880 with these, you know, Forbes companies and all that kind of stuff. And I said, yeah. So your first 426 00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:04,320 sentence in your bounce section just says, you're a great guy. I said, I see great guys and gals every day. 427 00:48:05,200 --> 00:48:13,680 And I said, what it needs to say is in the last 12 years, I've handled seven projects with project 428 00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:23,440 teams from five to 27 people on projects that were 1.3 million to 227 million dollars, you know, 429 00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:32,160 and all of them were finished on time and under budget. Okay, that I can sell, you know, but if I'm 430 00:48:32,160 --> 00:48:37,920 having to pull this out of you. And 10 years ago as an executive recruiter, I'd call and pull this 431 00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:44,480 out of you today. If you're not show ready, we just go to the person that is because employers will 432 00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:48,720 ask me, did you bring me the best? I said, I bring you the best that are ready for you. 433 00:48:48,720 --> 00:48:56,400 Because I didn't bring them the best. I physically know people, but I don't have time to dress them, 434 00:48:56,400 --> 00:49:00,560 you know, and make sure that they got their cleats at the soccer game and you know, that they 435 00:49:00,560 --> 00:49:11,920 bring their jersey. Yeah, I love that. I think that's a really good point is, are you ready? Right? How 436 00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:19,600 are you standing up against your your potential competitors? You know, with AI and everything these days, 437 00:49:19,600 --> 00:49:27,840 one job might have 500 applicants or more depending on the job, right? So like you said, if you're not 438 00:49:27,840 --> 00:49:35,520 show ready, the other 40 are, it's the 40 of you that are going to get looked at by the recruiter 439 00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:41,280 and by the staffing manager. And so I love that. I'm going to use that. Are you show ready? 440 00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:50,800 That's a career not had is performing, but Joe, this has been an incredible conversation. I thank you 441 00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:57,760 so much for being here and sharing your insights with our listeners and to our listeners. If you 442 00:49:57,760 --> 00:50:03,680 found today's episode valuable, please subscribe, share it with your listeners, leave a review, 443 00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:12,560 and connect with Joe until next time. Keep leaning with impact, and that's the executive connect 444 00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:13,440 podcast.