What I learned after reviewing over 1,000,000 resumes at AMAZON| The Nikhil Sai Show 65

What's going on? What's going on everyone who's actually listening to this podcast right now? First of all guys, welcome to The Nikhil Sai Show, which is hosted by me, The Nikhil Sai. And guess what's going on today? We're back with another amazing 2 Comma Club interview. So guys, this is going to be a crazy journey by the way, so just make sure to stick around. And in these uncertain times, because of this pandemic and all of this stuff, most entrepreneurs or people especially who wants to be in a better position in their company or have to have that dream leadership job in their life, right? They really struggle to get that, right? And now we're having a guest who literally hacked the entire Dream Job Hacking system. This is going to be a crazy podcast. You're going to love the story, guys. So just make sure you stick around. She's an expert when it comes to teaching people how to get a job where you can make over 6 figures without you even applying to that job. So that's where the crazy part is. So guys, let's not waste any time and actually welcome Lindsay Mustaine, CEO at Talent Paradigm.

Thank you so much for having me. What a great introduction. Let's— yeah, it's going to be a crazy journey. Let's do it.

Absolutely, Lindsay. And first of all, Lindsay, thank you so much for joining us on time. Lindsay is the CEO at Talent Paradigm. She has been helping thousands of actual job owners to get, uh, good jobs when it comes to hacking the entire talent and get the dream job and go to that leadership level in any company by following the simple hack she's gonna disclose today on this podcast. So make sure to stick around, guys, grab the notes. It's going to be a crazy valuable session for sure. So Lindsay, before we start Your journey is so much crazy. I was getting into so many emotions while actually going through your journey and looking at you in the Funnel Hacking Live stage while I was watching you, it was just like an amazing, beautiful moment for me to watch you walking on the stage. So can you please start with your backstory? Like how did all of this crazy journey started?

Oh my gosh. Well, I kind of have two origin stories when it comes to it. So I'll start with the why I do what I do in particular. And that started when I was just a little girl and I watched my dad get laid off from a job that he worked at for 20 years. I used to know he was ready to go to work because he would put on a gold watch and he would be ready to leave to work. And there was this immense pride he had in the work that he did, and he was very, very talented. And then just one day it was like all over, and things like the word, uh, pink slip and then overqualified were floating through my home. And my dad actually job searched for years. He searched for years, and then one day he was having really bad headaches and he went into the emergency room and they cut open the left lobe of his brain and they found an inoperable brain tumor and his life ended just a few months later. I was just a little girl and he never found another job. And so my mission now is to make sure that that story never repeats itself again. So what I'm doing is I'm teaching the most senior thought leaders in the world how to create and find their own dream job opportunity at their ideal target organization with the highest salary ever, without ever actually applying so that no little girl watches her daddy go through that story again.

My God. Wow. Oh my God. That was so, so, so sad to hear. But absolutely, we love the mission you're actually taking on through your real story of what happened. That was pretty amazing stuff, Lindsay. Thank you so much for sharing that journey. Can you please start?

I was like born to do this. I was born to do it. And so I was created. So that was the first origin story. So then can I tell you the second part? The second part is I had— I've been very passionate about people. Like, I have a human resource I'm a business person who hasn't forgotten about the humans and the families. And I never looked at people as just numbers on spreadsheets, which is very different than a lot of my counterparts or how corporate America is. And I went to work for Amazon after they tried to recruit me for about 4 years and they finally like gave me an opportunity. I said I wouldn't actually work there. I said, I'll take a contract because I don't want to— I don't think that you guys have what it takes really to keep me engaged and excited. I don't want to cry at my desk and I don't want to sleep under it. And I just fell in love with the company, if I'm really honest. And so it's just 6 weeks into my contract, they begged me to actually take on a full-time role. And I did. And then I did a lot of different cool things over that time. But at the very end, they actually created a job for me hunting the most elusive talent on the planet, utilizing the fact that I was their most visible employee as LinkedIn or on LinkedIn. I was the most visible employee on LinkedIn, and that meant that I had more engagement than Amazon as a company.

Wow.

And so they wanted to use that, and that allowed me to go into a really special place until the point where they— I said, We should think about doing better and we should try to teach, like we should. We are supposed to be very customer-centric, right? The most customer-centric company in the entire world. And we treated our candidates like garbage. And I said, what if we just like treated our candidates like they were our customers? Because 100% of the time they are. And they said, you know what, Lindsay, we think we got that. Well, it's been 4 years, folks. They still don't have it. And now I've become a Two Comma Club Award winner in teaching people how to hack the same system that we did to find the most elusive talent on the planet. Now I teach people how to become that through my proprietary 9-step system. I mean, this system has worked now for 15,000 people, so it works, it works, it works. And now we can have people beat the system that is very broken so they can land that 6-figure dream job without actually going through any of the work that people have been programmed to do. Wow.

Absolutely. That is crazy. Like, you have backside it. Amazon with the LinkedIn following, which is nuts. And you have transformed over 50,000 people with your transformational program. That's amazing, Lindsay. So let's get to the next question. This is going to be amazing stuff. A lot of people actually, when it comes to their careers, right, people who have the job but they don't find their passion, they don't find the kind of right fit, and they try to find another job even if they are working for 10 years in their job, they feel that this is not the right choice they made to stay in that. And because of the situation they're in, they can't lose it, or they can't quit the job, right? So like, as you have been already helping a lot of entrepreneurs, like how to discover the true passion and choose the right career for a specific person when it comes to—

it's an amazing question. So I like to talk about— we call this place, and it's for entrepreneurs and for individuals, and we call it the Zone of Career Power. So I'll tell you about this matrix. Um, there are 4 quadrants in the Zone of Career Power. And so how do you know you're at the point of career power? How you will recognize that is that work feels fun, easy, effortless. And if I spent 12 hours doing it, it only feels like just a couple because I'm so excited about the work that I'm doing. So, and I'm getting to do something that really matters and it feels very rewarding. So how do you manage that? Well, there are 4 pieces of the embodiment of true career power. And the first one is passion, which you said true passion. Okay. So passion, we can have a lot of things that you're passionate about. So I'm very much passionate about HR. I'm not very passionate about HR compliance. I'd actually rather poke my eyeball out. However, I'm incredibly experienced. So I don't want you to confuse, your excellence or your proficiency as passion. And that's one thing people are like, I can be good at a lot of things, but my zone of genius is really what I'm trying to align to. And so what I want you to think about is passion is what gives you energy, what makes you excited. And it's something that you're either really good at already or you're working to be really good at it. So I was really passionate about funnels. Now I wasn't very good at funnels in the very beginning, but I became really good at it. And so that's one of my passions. I'm also very passionate about petting cats. Now, petting cats is not probably something that I'm going to be able to monetize, although I've joked that I'm like, maybe we can include like a kitten with our packages. So that could be a way where we can embody it. But what I'm saying is that passion has to feel energizing. Okay, so that's the one part of the, of the career power matrix. The second piece is what we call purpose. And so purpose means that I am doing this for a bigger reason. So I like petting cats, but there's no purpose behind it. So I've missed that as far as the zone of career power. I do, however, feel very purposeful in disrupting what is a very antiquated and broken HR system. If I'm really honest, I want to eliminate it completely. Like, I feel like we can't reinvent it anymore. We can't reimagine it. We cannot even, like, hack it. We need to destroy it. And so that is like my biggest message. I'm talking to both Forbes and Business Insider about this idea even this week that we have no longer had the opportunity to actually improve anymore. So that's the second piece is what is the purpose? And that's where, like I talked about my story. So my origin story, why people really buy into a movement is there has to be a reason. There has to be a bigger purpose, a bigger impact. And I want you to think of the ripple effect. So I do this for a purpose, not just because I'm passionate about it, because we can be passionate around crocheting. Now, I don't know, there might be a real purpose around crocheting, but I'm not very passionate about crocheting. So I don't see that. Whatever it is, there needs to be a purpose. Okay. So, and that is the, to break this down even further, that's the feminine embodiment. So you have to be these things. You have to be both passionate and be purposeful. Next is kind of the masculine energy. So the pursuit of it. So how do I pursue what it is I want to take to my next level? So what I'm doing is the growth trajectory of where I want to go in my career. And that's either as an entrepreneur, which, by the way, we are all entrepreneurs. It does not matter if you work inside of a business. We work as the business of me, Inc. So I'm always reprogramming people to realize they need to be in business for themselves. And sometimes they provide that value as their own business inside of another person's business and supporting, again, passion and purpose, hopefully. And the pursuit here is the other piece. How do I uplevel? How do I move towards my goals? How do I align those things? That's the second part. And then the very last part is profitability. Because when we do work, that's the true embodiment of all of this is our zone of genius. We do work and that's the 1% of what we're good at. Not like, like we're— there's— so there's 4 zones of genius. There's incompetency, there's competency, there's excellence. I'm really good at a lot of things. That's actually a downfall for most people because they can't choose. Don't choose what you're just good at. You choose what you're a genius at. And that's the 1% of the work. And that's where the massive profitability happens. So I am the best in the world at helping people go through the intentional career design process to land jobs without ever applying for them that embodies true career power where they feel excited, motivated, energized to go to work and do something that's truly meaningful. So they love what they do. I am the best in the world. That is my zone of genius. And that means massive profitability for both me and then in turn, my people on average, they around $72,000 more in working with me. I have never seen any kind of investment strategy that will allow you to put in the kind of investment with me that gets the kind of return. It's sickening. It is sickening. And so that is what I can do. And why? Because I tapped into my zone of genius. And that's where we talk about true career power.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that crystal clear clarity of what you're actually serving with to the actual audience— it could be a company you're working for, it could be an audience as an entrepreneur, as a coach, as a digital marketers who are trying to provide products and services, I think that real clear pathway you just mentioned can really help them. And let's see, like, let's get to the next question. This is going to be quite interesting. And you specialize in helping people to actually get jobs, dream jobs, without applying. But hopefully most people, you know, they try to apply, or most likely they will be ending up in an interviewing process, maybe sitting out with an awkward HR interview or something like that, right? So, but when it comes to an HR interview, most companies, they have like a 10,000-stake of people who are trying to apply for a specific job position, right? And it's really hard to kind of stand out. And even if you are the absolute genius when it comes to the position, it's hard to stand out and be like, hey, I know what you're looking for, right? So as for your experience in the HR space, like, how to actually stand out when it comes to an interviewing process?

Yeah, okay, so there are, there are some key things to take away here. So the very first thing is you need to have absolute clarity about what value you provide. So we talk about being in the business of me, Inc. In that business, what, what makes a business successful? When they're absolutely able to provide value. So people will be like, well, I was super qualified for that job. And I was like, but were you able to articulate it? So I need to make it beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are the right fit for the job because you create a solution to the pain that they are experiencing. And let me be very clear, the reason why a company is hiring is because they have pain. And there's usually two reasons. They need to make money or they need to save money. All jobs, even HR, which doesn't seem to fit into this, They either increase revenue or they decrease costs or some combination thereof. So I do this, I am this solution because I do these things. So we need to create a value proposition. If you have that, you have complete clarity and you know how to be the answer, you eliminate all other options. Okay? So that's why, like, becoming the candidate of choice, when people just throw money at you and you have multiple job offers, that's what my candidate or my clients experience as candidates. That happens because you become the solution. Okay? The second thing is that it is not about your qualifications. Okay? There are people we can all say you've had a boss that you've been smarter than. You've all had people who've gotten jobs that you never even knew how they got the job. What did they have that you didn't have? I bet it wasn't that they paid for it, but some giant MBA or they have an Ivy League education. What they have is the connection. And so that's the other piece is that you need to be able to speak your genius into the world so you can be the most brilliant person on the entire planet. But if you don't bother to tell anybody about it, nobody will know. So you need to be able to articulate that. So I say that the most important skill that you can have at all is sales skills. And what you are selling again in the business of Me Inc. is yourself. And you need to be able to articulate it. And you're not going to be good at this. Let me be very clear. You're going to suck at it, but you are going to play by everybody else's rules until you get better at it. And so I'm so very thankful that my career began in sales and operations because I was able to articulate value and I understood how to do that. So when I— now when I was recruiting, guess what I was doing? I was selling something else. And you were always selling something. You were always selling yourself or selling somebody to get buy-in on your idea to take the next step. You are selling no matter what, and you should be very thankful. There's some sort of like process where people are like, oh, I am so thankful somebody sold me this jacket or this lipstick. Okay, I am so very thankful that somebody bothered to do that because I wouldn't have anything in my life without sales. We need to reprogram that. And then the last thing is, besides the connections, is enthusiasm trumps experience. So I will take somebody— this is where the overqualified thing gets in. And I just remember that my dad got the story overqualified. So that word literally makes me sick to my stomach. But when people are like, well, I'm overqualified, and I was like, what you're showing me is you've become— you have a chip on your shoulder. So one, we, we manifest what we believe about ourselves. So if you believe you're overqualified, guess what? You are immediately. I don't even have to do anything. You've decided that. But the next thing is that a lot of times the way that we show up like that is that I know everything, guys. Nobody hires somebody who knows everything. We are looking for somebody who is a student of their craft. So like I am, I might be a 2CC winner. But guess what? I am still a student of this craft. So now I just uplevel and I like learn from a smaller audience because what I want, I want the 2CCX award. So that's where I'm going to learn. So what you need to do is again, model the people who have a life that you want. Let me give you that again. That means your parents are probably not who you need to be modeling. You probably need to be modeling the people who are the most successful that have the life that you desire. If you have that, then those are the people to hack and to model what works. Don't fall into— if you want results like what everybody else has, then go ahead and do what everybody else is. And those are the sheep, my poor little sheeple. But what I deal is I deal with the leaders. They're the ones who are the shepherds, and they are willing to deviate from the standard norm. And that's why this works, because guess what? Nobody is really willing to do it. They're not willing to step into that.

Absolutely, Lindsay. That was absolutely beautifully articulated by you. Thank you so much for that quick answer. I think a lot of people who are trying to get a job as well, they need to realize that they're actually selling the person who is hiring them, right? They should really sell. And absolutely, the enthusiasm you just mentioned and the kind of accountability, and as you just mentioned, the key results, why they can get the absolute information or the actual requirement fulfillment, really matters a lot. And as you just mentioned, I love the fact that you actually talked a lot about how they can actually stand out to the process by not being the person who knows everything. And we see this happening day in, day out. Everyone comes in and, you know what, I know everything about you. We are not coachable. We do everything already. We know everything. That doesn't sell anyone. Absolutely.

Exactly. You don't want that. I will say, like, I am the very best in the world at what I do, but let me be very clear, I am willing to evolve and learn and find a better pathway. So like right now, it's the hottest market I have ever seen in 20 years in HR. So what works now is a little different than what worked 2 or 3 years ago. So we need to innovate. And that's what people are looking for. They don't want the status quo. They're looking for the solution because when we get in that place, we have the quantum leaps. That's what zone of genius does. Quantum leaps are not like, I can improve salary or this percentage. I can make a 1,000% improvement. I'll give you an example. I hired somebody on my team that replaced 17 other people. So when you are in your zone of genius and you do work that really matters and you are aligned into that work, you can— it's exponentially big. It's not just like a 2 or 3 times. 17-time return for that one hire. So just make sure you know, like, what, what works and what people look for. It doesn't always work out that way. And that's why actually, I could go on and on and on about this, but interviewing doesn't actually net results. And I think you're going to ask me about that a little bit later. So just know that, like, there is an answer to this, and I can give that to you.

Absolutely, Lindsay. That's pretty awesome. And as an employer, you're one employee away. And as a As an employee, you're one job away. That's, that's pretty exciting, Lindsay. Love that, love that. Absolutely. Let's get to the next question, Lindsay. So one of the main problems as a company when they are actually scaled to the next level, like you have been scaling your business to 7 figures and beyond, you're looking at the 8-figure mark, which is pretty amazing. Hopefully you'll achieve that pretty soon. And one of the main reasons you're having this kind of success is you have leaders who can replace your entire work, and they're taking care of that exact piece. It could be accounting, it could be sales and marketing, it could be funnels, advertising, it could be operations, it could be fulfillment, whatever. So first of all, The main problem is as an employer, like how to actually attract these key leader positions? Like how do you actually attract these high-level leveraged people who are coachable, who get the skill sets?

This is, okay, this is a fire question. And I mean fire as in this is hot. The reason why I just told you this is the most competitive environment I have ever seen. So everyone is hiring. Everyone is hiring. COVID was a game changer. It made everybody have to disrupt exactly what all the things I taught beforehand. I was like, Duh, I already knew that. Here's proof though. Thank you, the world, giving me proof that we don't need to be in an office. We can demand anything we want. And I predicted this moment would come where we would have this massive resurgence. So the economy is expanding so quickly. So everyone wants to hire everyone. In fact, here's your best indicator whether or not the market is expanding. How many people are hiring recruiters? So if there's recruiters, guess what? Those people represent hundreds of hires typically that we're going to be making. So I am seeing this right now where we need to hire the best people. And so let me just be very clear. The hiring process right now is absolutely broken, and traditional hiring does not net on-the-job performance. I know. So this is the thing, actually. This is my next big thing that I'm launching actually is going to be— and I don't even know what the name of it is because I'm like, there's a way that I've hired and the way that I teach companies how to hire that I haven't ever actually articulated. So I'm going to tell you What is crazy, bar none, what people have got this backwards. Your job posting of your job description is not enough to attract top talent. Let me be very clear. Your job description will not get you the best people. All right. So it's kind of like trying to trap Bigfoot. If you wanted Bigfoot, who's the most amazing Bigfoot in the world, right? I'm assuming there's only one. I don't know. But if I just want to go find Bigfoot, I just said, oh, you know what? I need Bigfoot right now. And I'm just going to put a trap in my backyard and hope that Bigfoot comes by. What's the likelihood it's going to happen?

0%.

Yeah. So this is exactly how we try to hire people. So one of the biggest ways is that your existing network is the first place to go. But let me be really clear here. Do not seduce them with your job description. Nobody gives a shit about your job description. If I'm really 100% honest, what they really care about is one thing. The— for the highest caliber people, they want a vision of something bigger. You need to paint and be the visionary. So there's a guy, and I love to use the example of— his name is Dan Price and he runs Gravity Payments. He is a case study who said everybody, even the janitor, gets $70,000 a year. He took a pay cut to $0. He believes if you take care of your people, they'll take care of your customers. The results are astounding. It's the first person, and they said he was crazy. Well, he's proved out everything that I've already known in his actual business. So what do people want to be a part of? Well, let me tell you, they cannot keep up. With the amount of applications they get. Because guess what people want? They want to be a part of something new and innovative. So it's not the tasks. Just because somebody's qualified to do the task is not how you're going to get the right leader. You need to paint a vision of where you're going. Okay, so that's stage 1. Stage 2 is they have to have the right environment to come in. And so we're looking what we call the human-centric workforce or workplace. What I'm really looking inside of that is that do I have a way? And let me just give you a little bit here, guys. Entrepreneurs, you have jackdiddly shit going on for you and taking care of your people. And I love you, but even I struggled with this in the beginning and I'm the expert in this. Okay. So what I mean is that in order for somebody to be successful, it is not the deep end approach, meaning hello, welcome on board, please solve all my issues. And here's your book. Good luck. That is not a way to enable somebody for success. And it is 100% how we do that as small businesses. Okay. So I want you to think the massive return on this is going to be investing the time now and also letting go of all the shit that you think you are the best at until it's that 1% and you're doing work that really matters. So guess what? For me, coaching and content, that is my zone of genius. Okay? Now I'm good at funnels and I'm good at email marketing and I'm good at some of this stuff. I am not the best. So guess what? That goes off of my plate. So you need to think about that. Okay? And then the last thing. So the reason why that one person came in and replaced 17 people for me is that she did work in her zone of genius and I got the fuck out of her own way. Okay, so what I mean by that is that I was no longer— a lot of people are, well, they didn't do it right, or I need to keep control on this. And you need to trust your people. If you do not trust them, then do not hire them. You need to trust them with your ability, their ability to deliver on what they've sold. Okay. And so what they're selling, right, is their idea and their qualifications. So stop babysitting them like they're toddlers. Let them do work that matters and let them do it well. Do not give them the how. Tell them what. And we're not looking for hours tracked. We're looking for productivity, which are results. Okay. So there are like 10 tenets to this process. And this is something that I have— like you've seen in career design is like this new phrase. Well, the person who came up with career design was yours truly. I came up with that idea is that this is what's going to happen. There's no longer going to be traditional HR. It's going to be completely aligned to the employee lifecycle from the point of attracting to hiring to onboarding. And yes, those are all 3 different things. To retaining and engagement, and then to exiting. Okay. And we do want people to leave the company when they're no longer a good fit or when they need to go someplace else. And those people are not bad people. They're still human beings and they still have some opportunity to make a difference in the world, even if it's not with our company. Okay. So that is how we need to look at this piece. So when we talk about talent, talent has to realize like they are human, they're living, breathing person that needs to take care of their family. And the best way for you to get that quantum leap in the results is give them zone of genius work Give them an environment that actually matters and make sure you're a visionary of your business and you paint a bigger picture and that they want to be in there rowing in the same goddamn boat in the right direction.

Yeah, absolutely, Lindsay. That was on point. And I genuinely believe the, the single keyword in the entire session you just mentioned, the vision, is the main keyword here. It was absolutely insane that you should really articulate that as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, to the employee so that they can really believe in what you're actually trying to build. Because We see people like Elon Musk have no clue how to get to the Mars, but they still hire the right expertise to build a rocket, right? Even though, yeah, how many people believe that it's true or not, but they did it. That, that's pretty awesome stuff, right? Awesome, Lindsay. That's really articulates how important a vision is. And one of the things you have mentioned here is our, is our next question. Like, as a young business or a small business, most 7-figure businesses, they have employees less than 20 people, like very small business operating in a single office. They're not in multi-locations, that they really struggle with the initial phase itself to scale because they don't have the right culture, right? There are employees having chitchat, they don't show up on time, they don't have the efficient systems there, they just juggle around. So we would love to hear, like, as an experienced HR consultant, like, how do you look at when it comes to creating a culture inside a small business?

All right, well, the culture is 100% derived from the CEO, okay? So the job of the CEO is to be the visionary, to be the thing that paints this audacious future state. Like I just told you, I wanted to burn human resources to the ground, right? I'm painting a picture that like, how dare she? Let me tell you that that is actually not— and it's not just like, how dare she? You guys can have amazing pictures. Make sure there's some science behind it or something that makes it possible. You know, like I'm not going to say we're going to sprout wings and fly tomorrow. Maybe you have a solution for that, but I don't have that. So that's not what I'm going to sell. But I'll tell you that I have a lot of people who come into my business and And they've been amazing and they actually get picked up to do another opportunity, but they never leave me. They still do work because they are so aligned to the vision of what it is that I do. And so what you need to do is you need to be the person who believes in your people, who defends and advocates for them, who recognizes that a lot of people get this confused. Culture does not start with your customers or your investors or shareholders if you have them. Your culture starts with your people. If you take care of your people, They will take care of your customers. And guess what? In turn, that automatically takes care of the shareholders or investors. Okay, so why corporate's got this all backwards and the ones that are like crazy and culture-wise, they figured out that employees come first. And if you take care of your people, they'll take care of your customers. And it's just this different waterfall. And so that's the biggest thing. And that means that you have to show up as CEO of like, am I the best leader? Like, would I want to work for me? Like, let's be honest, would I want to work for me? And I'll tell you, when I first started my business, I had no idea what I was doing. I had like 14 seconds of experience. I'd sold like makeup and clothes. Okay. I ran a little consignment store or sale. That was it. I had no idea what I was doing. So no, I wouldn't want to work for me. No, I feel bad for the people who worked for me in the very beginning. So I had a really hard look at that. And then I started bringing on people and I invested more in the people who were able to take off the workload for me. And I worked on my own personal development. So what I'm saying here is that in order to hire the right people, they are going to be better than you. You are not a fucking unicorn. Okay. And this is from Alex Charfen, by the way, which means I am very, very good, very good at writing emails. That does not mean I should build out my entire email sequence. Okay.

Nope.

You are not unicorn. In fact, to the point where someone on my team, they wrote this email based on some content. What we do is I'll be like, just download this because I can just talk about anything. And I'm like, here it is. Can you turn it into something? And I literally looked at this thing and I, It was an email that we sent. I hadn't even reviewed it because at this point I trusted this person quite— and I looked at it and I was like, that is the best email I've ever seen sent. I didn't write it. I did not write it. Okay, so just make sure, like, when you're trusting in people, like, that's a big piece. And then get out of the way and make sure that you know that they need to believe that they're on your side, that you're on their side. Okay, so like one of the things that we talk about of the tenets of the human-centric workplace is We correct processes before people. So people will be like, this person didn't do that thing. And I was like, did you actually have a process that made that clear and apparent to that person? Or are you telling me that your poor leadership caused that issue and now they're going to suffer the consequences? Hello, corporate America. That's all it is. And pretty much so if you want to run your best people out the door and bleed them out to your competition, treat them like they don't matter. Otherwise, remember that they're human beings. They want to do good work. Nobody wakes up and goes like, I really want to piss Lindsay off today. That's usually not what they might— there's probably a couple of them out there. But for the most part, my team, they're aligned to my vision. And as long as they know that I believe in them, they're going to find a way. They will. What we— I have a boss that started, he's like, what makes people run through walls for you? Do people want to run through walls? Like, if you listen to the crowd when I cross 2CC, there are a million people out there. Maybe that's a little bit of exaggeration. There's only a couple of thousand in the room, but hundreds of people in there cheering for me because they know me personally and they know my vision and they know my heart and they know my— the things that I went through in order to get to this point. And so that's culture. Okay. Culture is every breath. Every time you show up anywhere, any interaction, that's your culture, that's your brand. And so you need to be visionary in that. And you need to remember that the people are what matters first. If you've got that backwards, you will never be successful and you can bar none. Like I guarantee you're gonna fail. Guarantee. Unless you take care of your people.

Yeah, absolutely. Lindsay, that was on point. And again, like people need to realize, especially as a business owner, that they are culture. Like, like if you are waking up at 11 AM and if you're expecting your employees to come and sit and work at 9, that's not happening. Like you really reflect your, your emotions in the office and you really need to build that culture. So that's, that's awesome, Lindsay. Love that answer. Let's get to the next question. So Lindsay, again, one of the main reasons you've been serving great at Amazon is because of your LinkedIn following, and you stress a lot when it comes to leveraging LinkedIn as social media to get their dream job. So we'd love to hear your inputs on building a personal brand on LinkedIn to job hack.

Oh my goodness. Well, I think we talk about this is like I find that this is the social media. People don't seem to realize that this is the deepest pockets of social media that exists. So when we were like, oh, it's YouTube. Oh, and I'm not saying these are bad things. You should 100%, but specialize first, 100% be on LinkedIn. Okay. So I started LinkedIn. I celebrated 16 years on LinkedIn. So I have like I have a teenager that can drive now, in LinkedIn experience. And I just thought it was really cool because I was a recruiter, right? So my whole job has been just connecting with people for a long time. So my job naturally allowed me to build a network. And so what I did on LinkedIn was I just started like basically the idea of throwing stones and marketing, right? And I said, we can do better, or here's how you help yourself, whatever it was. All I did— and I don't talk to just talk. That drives me crazy. There's a whole bunch of people have bigger followings on social media and they're like, here's my kumbaya. Wouldn't it be nice if this was better? Okay, that's really great. That would be nice and better. But not just that. Here's how we make it better. So we talk to show up, to give a message, to either inspire action or give them a call to action to do something that makes their life better. And so what I do is I just want to defend and advocate for the people who I see suffer. And I was that person. I watched my dad be that person. I watched my clients go through that. So I build my brand on, on LinkedIn. First, it starts with your profile. That's the first thing. The second thing is the content that you provide on LinkedIn, which has a very specific format. And then the last thing is the people that you actually network with on the profile or on the, on the platform. And it is like the richest pockets possible, the biggest access to cash reserves. They're on LinkedIn. If you understand how to pull this off right. And that's another, another one, because that's one of the points when you get to 2CC there, this is the time when you finally get to differentiate. This is one of the things people have been asking me for years and I've been like, no. So it's the other part of the business that I'm working on right now is like I have something called the $1 Million Profile, which is your LinkedIn profile and how to generate, which I got completely. I would have hit $1 million completely through organic traffic just in standing in my truth and saying the things that make people uncomfortable. And I do get haters. That is one thing you have to be prepared for. And I've even had death threats, which is fine because you know what? The people who needed to hear it, the people who needed a little bit of a breath of belief in them, They're the ones. And at some point, 80% of my business is totally free. But the people who keep the lights on and keep our business running, they're the ones who come in. They work with me closer to collapse time and increase results. But I'm there to show up to help people. So my heart is a servant's heart first. And then if they want closer results, then they can work with me personally. But I understand who my audience is. One, because I was that person. One, because I watched that happen. And now 15,000 people later, I know this person. I can speak to what they're going on. And to know that they're not alone, which is all they want to believe, is that they're just not alone. And there is more for them.

Yeah, true, true, true, Lindsay. That was absolutely insane. Thank you so much for exactly laying out how you have actually grown your LinkedIn and actually leverage that to get the dream job. That's awesome. And Lindsay, this is going to be pretty amazing stuff, right? So you have been managing your clients, their results, and the kind of projects you handle day in, day out to your productivity level at the max, right? So we'd love to hear more about like, what kind of tools do you use to manage your projects, clients for the most productive Well, so I, I, let me just be very clear.

I am the most disorganized person on the planet, probably. So I, one of my coaches is Alex Charfen. And if you don't know who he is, he is worth a listen. And he runs the Momentum podcast. And one of the things is process is the biggest driver of success. And so when you like why Russell Brunson says just one funnel away, just one funnel away. Well, unless you actually have that like funnel and really it's a funnel with a value ladder attached to it. Unless you have that built out and you made it easy and scalable, you will just chase things around forever. Okay. So the one thing I— what I look for is always a framework. Okay. So a framework. So I told you there is a 9-step framework for my Dream Job Hack program and for Intentional Career Design. Okay. If I talk about your LinkedIn profile for a $1 million profile, there are 3 steps. Actually, if I talk about the employee lifecycle, there are 6 lifecycle steps to Completing the engagement from leadership, the environment, and job design. If we take all that, that's how I have— so everything I do has to be— it's easy to understand and it needs to be simple. People are like, it needs to be this complex process. Please, please don't. OK, people paid for velocity. That means how quickly we can get them there. OK, so I can tell everybody, I mean, I hold the highest certifications in HR. This is where I got my degree. I do not need to give you the encyclopedia to tell you this works. What I can tell you is after 20 years of doing this, hiring 10,000 people, looking at a million resumes, writing the bestselling book and helping 15,000 people. There's nobody is more qualified on the entire planet than me. So let me give you the answer so you stop wasting your time and we can get you that result in 9 weeks more than your MBA program over the course of a few years and $100,000. Well, I can do that in 9 weeks and we'll do better. Just give people a short term. So a framework is the biggest thing. That would be my biggest part. And here is you need to paint the future and then backtrack, always backwards planning. And that's how what I teach my clients too is like, what do you want to be? Like, whatever you're going, which you need to pick a destination, folks. Let me be really clear here. Why most job searches don't work, why most businesses don't succeed. You don't have a goddamn destination picked. Okay. So choose where you're going to go and then work backwards from it. And then when you do build a framework to get there. Okay.

Yep. True that. True that, Lindsay. I think that's where a lot of entrepreneurs, they just have a dream and kind of a milestone that they want to hit, but they're very unclear. It's just blurry and you can't really target something which is blurred.

And that thing is like, even if it's the wrong direction, like there's 360 degrees, right? But coming from a standstill. So let's just talk about Newton's law of motion. It says that an object in motion will stay in motion. So just move your ass. It does not matter if you end up needing to go south when you went north, you can take the direction. Okay. You can turn, but stopping and starting is what causes people to have the biggest issue. And I think you're going to ask me about What my biggest, like my mistake was, this was my big mistake, was I stopped and I got hesitant and I stopped showing up for a little bit. And there's a reason why, like it took me time to recalibrate and get started again. So don't stop going. You will get better at everything. And this is why I talk about my clients, 'cause again, we're still marketing a business as an individual, a business of me. It's by speaking your truth and standing in your highest power, that is enough to be magnetic to your dream clients, that your energy will attract people. They'll be excited.

Yeah, absolutely, Lindsay. And thank you so much for giving a shout out to Alex. We actually had him on the last podcast. It was pretty amazing stuff. Dope person. His Momentum Planner is just on point. Let's get to the next question.

Okay, so I will say that framework, I mean, I do that every— I was like, here is my, my planner.

Momentum.

Yeah. And I choose what's most— least amount of effort, most amount of results. And so he changed my life. He was one of the people who I sent my picture to when I got the 2 Comma Club Award. He's like, I'm walking on air. He was so happy.

Yeah, absolutely. He's a pretty awesome dude. Absolutely. I really, really enjoyed him having on the podcast, by the way. Let's get to the next question, Lindsay. So yeah, I believe as you are already, uh, Alex certain follower, hopefully you'll be more like this productive entrepreneur who is having all of the rituals. So we'd love to know more about like your daily routines. How does that—

oh my gosh, okay, so I have the— thank you, Alex Charfen, again for the most crazy routine ever. So, um, The biggest investment I can say, especially in running a business, the biggest investment, it's in you. Okay? So your uplevel will either bring people with you or it will bring them down. Okay? So I spend 3 hours every morning before— so I get up at 5:00 AM and I start work at 8:00. What happens during that time? Well, Alex, here we go. I have my water, so I hyperhydrate. He probably talks about that if you ever heard him say that. Yeah. So this is something that even in my clients that I teach them. So we hydrate, we choose good nutrition to start our day. I do something with greens. I also have an infrared sauna. I want to get my state up. So I like basically what I'm trying to do is I use a lot of energetic technology, which is very new age, and I use things like crystals to amplify my results. And people be like, crystals, folks, your watch runs because of a crystal. So programming happens whether you believe me or not. It's working for you right now. You're welcome. So I use that. I also spend time using— I do gratitude. I talk about what my goals are, what my intentions are, my top 3 things I'm going to achieve that day. I spend time with my children and take them to school. And then by the time I show up here, I have something left to give at the end of the day. So my 3-hour routine is pretty hardcore, if I'm really honest, but it allows me to really do the work inside of myself. So I need to change my internal state. To change my external state, and then I can show up for my company, for my team and for my family because they're the ones at the very end of the day who have to still deal with me at the highest level. So my daily routine is ultimately, if you don't set a goal, you have no chance of achieving it. Okay. And they— I'll just go back to a study. They took a look at an entire class at Ivy League school. And of this class, they took everybody. 97% of them didn't have written goals down, but 3% of them did. This is an Ivy League education. They followed that class for 20 years. You want to know the results were? The 3% had more wealth than the 97% together. So that's what I say. Just pick a goddamn vision and move towards it, even if you're doing the wrong thing, because you're more likely to bring that closer to you just because you put something in motion. And at the metaphysical level, the universe rewards vision. So choose where you want to go. Choose that most disruptive vision and things you want to go towards, and that the world will conspire. The universe is conspiring for your success.

Yeah, absolutely, Lindsay. So beautiful. Thank you so much for articulating that. And, and that momentum, even if that's the wrong direction, or just if you have a real clear goal and if you're maintaining that momentum, going backward, forward, doesn't matter. If you have that momentum in you, that's going to make you successful for sure, because quitters never win, winners never quit. That's awesome. Let's get to the next question. This would be awesome, by the way. So what will be a suggestion to a 20-year-old you or someone who's just getting started?

Well, I was kind of, uh, I was one of those people who I started working before I even graduated I graduated high school. So my career did not start— it started at 18. So one of the things I would say there is I was always different. I was always different. I was always like much more ambitious. I believed I had the most amazing start in my career and the most amazing visionary CEO. And just so you know, I worked in something— self-storage. Let me be really clear. Self-storage, least sexy industry possible. But it was the most transformational, uh, business I have ever been in. And that's what I say, when people will buy in, they will buy into your culture. They won't buy what you do, they get by why you do it. Okay, so the thing I would say is that my suggestion to my 20-year-old self is stop tolerating bullshit. Okay, and what I mean by that is that means people who treated me badly, supervisors who didn't see my potential, peers who thought less of me. Your proximity to the people who you want, the kind of life that you want, if you You look at my circle, it's very tight. It's very different than when I started my business. So 5 years ago, different friends than I have today. Now I still care about a lot of those people, but what I surround myself with is people who are my equal or greater. I am never the smartest person in the room. That is a very boring room to be in. Okay. And so that is one of the things that I would say. So stop tolerating like the bad job, the bad boyfriend, the bad life experience, whatever the heck is going on. And just know that you can craft whatever reality and design your life but you have to make a decision and stop being a goddamn victim. Sorry, Lindsay. I know you'd like to believe like in the world is really good, but a lot of times I was like, well, my life has been really hard. I was homeless. I was this, I went to school at night for 10 years. All of those things. When I tell them now, that's a story of power. I did go to school at night for 10 years. I finally got my degree. It turns out you don't need a fucking degree to do anything I teach you. So it let me learn that problem the hard way. But I believe that life is always working for you, always in all ways, which means that even the stuff that seems crappy and there's been some crappy stuff for me, that it's actually helped me build my success. And that's what I really want is that belief that there is something better. So just know, like sometimes the path is the obstacle is the way. If you've heard that, that is really true. And so stop. But the thing is, you must make a decision to change. And you do not have to believe people who are around who believe in less than you can believe that crazy dream. So 10 years ago, I'll give you an example. 10 years ago, and I was not 20 at that time, but I was in my 20s. And I said, 10 years ago, I was sitting at Facebook's headquarters and I talked about something about candidate experience 10 years ago. And I said, candidate experience is critical. You never know who your past, present, or future customers are. Guess what? That girl is still right. And candidate experience is still a fucking problem a decade later. Now, so much that people are leaving. And I'm like, that is the vision that I had. So there's something in you that's bigger and deeper, and I want you— that most audacious thing that you believe is possible, it is. The person who needs to realize it though is you, and you need to take action to do it. So stop playing small, stop playing it safe, and remember, stop tolerating the bullshit or what stories have told you and believe what your own internal North Star, your own compass tells you about your possibility.

Yeah, true, true. Yeah, other opinions never matters when you know what you can actually achieve in your life. Your life. That's, that's awesome, Lindsay. Love it. Let's get to the next question. This would be amazing as well. Your life's biggest achievement so far and any next bigger goals.

You know, I thought about this and I was like, God, what is my biggest achievement? So I think I'm going to go with like, there are, there are two. Um, so my biggest achievement in is my business in particular. And the reason why, um, and that would be, I'm going to do professionally and personally. Um, my biggest achievement is my, my business because of the impact, the ripple effect of the people that I've been able to change. And so, What I know is that now that I've worked with thousands, there are people like, I have a guy who he's just, he's work, he spends the month, he like rents out a space in Hawaii, spends a month just working from Hawaii, even though he is based on the East Coast, gets to travel around the world. That is his life. He's like, I never knew that was possible for me until you came along. And his family lives across, like his daughter lives in like Sydney. And so he gets to travel over there, never ever got to visit her ever once until after he went through my program. So I watched that, and his story is just such gratitude for me. And I was just like, really, I'm just very grateful to be a part of his journey. So I get to watch that and I get to change the industry and I get people to believe the kind of thing that, which is that they have this beautiful gift if they're willing to do the work and stop buying into what everyone tells you is the real story. And let me show you the way that, that is the thing. So that to me, I feel so very divinely blessed that that has been given to me and that opportunity. And so when I say, like I said, I was celebrating. I did the livestream from the 2 Comma Award and I said, I'm super excited to be here, but let me just be very clear. It's not that award that we should be celebrating. It's that every person who decided to invest in themselves to make this happen, because that has millions of people in impact. And so that is why it matters. It's not about the financial reward. Yeah, that's super fucking cool. It allows me to do more. What it means, though, is that the people whose lives I get to change, and that's everything. If I don't get to change lives, I would quit this business in a second. Honestly, I would love to put myself out of business because I think what I do is bullshit and the industry shouldn't actually cause me to have to hack it so that people can have success. That's what I would like to do because guess what? I will find another business to be in. That's what my overall belief is. I've had a very, very weird, strange business strategy and I know, like, I'll tell you, even my coaches will be like, that's really dumb. I don't care because in my heart that feels right. I want to change this industry so I don't need to have a job doing this to fix the problem. So that's my big one. Okay. The second, my biggest goal here is that I get to be the kind of person that can be the mama to my babies. And so I was not this person when my children were born. In fact, my daughter, she's a little mini me. She's 7 years old now and she is the person of who I am today, but 7 years old. So she is like a firecracker. And I'm like, this girl is going to change the world because she doesn't have all the bullshit that I got to believe. And it took me until I was in my 30s to reprogram and believe in something different, she is going to change the world faster. And I have a little boy who has the heart of gold. He is literally the kindest soul I've ever met. And so I get to be here and I get to show them that they can have a life that's different than anybody else because their mom does it and they think I'm really cool. So that is why I say that that is my— so my biggest professional accomplishment, my biggest personal accomplishment are my little babies that are just the most amazing humans that I've ever met.

Awesome, awesome, awesome, Lindsay. That, that's absolutely insane. And we love the vibe here. Let's get to the next question. You kind of already answered this, but we would love to hear what was the biggest mistake in your life so far, especially in terms of personal growth?

So I would say, I always say the obstacle is the way. We sometimes take the scenic route, but I got to the point where I bought into things that people had said. How can I say this? Listening to other voices outside of my own internal compass. Okay. So things were like, you shouldn't say that, or you shouldn't be that. I even lost a friend recently who said, who do you think you are? And I was like, I'll tell you who I am. More successful than you, making better change than you, and we're not going to be friends anymore because of that. So I got held up by voices and I stopped doing the work. Because I stopped, that was less people I got to help because I stopped. So my biggest mistake for me was stopping the process because I had my own doubt or people introduced doubt. So you need again to model like what does success look like and who do you put around you that amplifies your results? So my best friend in business, his name is Mark Stern. Guess what? I walked the stage and right behind me was Mark Stern. And between the two of us, we together, like we are this like brain trust because together we know we do more. And I love my peers, but there's very few of us that have crossed that stage. And so guess what? Like when I put my bed on, when I go and need some help, do you know who I go to first? I'm going to talk to my either my team or I'm going to talk to Mark because I know that he's going to raise the level. So the other part is don't stop and listen to the voices either true to yourself or that are here to help support you. And not all people, even if they look friendly, are actually going to help you. OK, and I love my mother. I love my mother. But she said, Mom, I'd be more inclined to listen to you if you had a life that I would want. And that was a very hard thing for her to hear. But that is the biggest truth is stop listening. People want your family. Your friends, even sometimes your partner will want to protect you, not provide for you. Let me say that again. They want to protect you and not provide for you. That is your job. Okay, so you need to detach from that and do what's best for you, even when other people will say that's crazy. Guess what? We are the crazy ones.

We are the misfits. Absolutely. We are the entrepreneurs. We are here to put the cause and change. That's awesome, Lindsay. And Entrepreneurs who are listening to this podcast, who you listen to really matters. So make sure to pick the right people and open your ears only for them and never let other people's opinions matter in your journey. That's awesome, Lindsay. Thank you so much. We would love to hear more about like your main inspiration for all the success you achieved and key people involved in your journey.

Um, so my main inspiration when I, uh, when I walked the stage, the person who I walked the stage for most was me. What? I know it sounds really selfish, but the truth is, like, being very external focused is a problem. The person who I wanted to make proud was me. And the reason why is that there are two people that, um, the reason I am here and why I keep showing up, and, um, two that are no longer on this planet. And one is my daddy. Um, he is the reason every day I show up. But also along this way, um, my brother was murdered, and, uh, I showed up for him too. So even after I had to face his killer in court a year ago, I still show up now. And that was me, like, when I say talk about showing up, it has been the hardest journey of my life to show up still. So those are the two main inspirations because I live because they have a legacy that lives through me. So when I say it's for me, it's for me, it's for my dad, it's for my brother. And then the other two people I show up for are my kids because I want them to be a force for good and I want them to change the world for the better. And I need to pull them out of what the collective consciousness and the programming that our school system gives us, and believe that they can do more and they can do better no matter how little or how different or how whatever. They're too much or too little, this or that, that none of that matters. None of that matters. That they can be anything that they wish to. And I don't have a goal for them. Like, I don't want them to be like a billionaire. I don't care if they work at McDonald's. What I want them to be is kind people, because I believe kindness is a way that you actually surround yourself with happiness. And it's not about self-serving happiness. It's actually about helping serve the world. And so that's what I look for in my kids. So those would be it. I have a number of coaches. The list is so long that I literally— like, one of the things I've definitely invested in, I probably spent $200,000 on my own personal development, which is well over what my degree is and so much more productive. But I've had a lot of coaches that have really helped me in major transformation. And so for them, I'm very thankful. I don't have enough time to list it out right here. So— but I've had a lot of people and then my own community of other entrepreneur friends. And people who have been there when I literally was broken and had like nothing left to give, who were there still backing me up, those are the people who, you know, are going to be there. And the people who were fair-weather friends and ran off and left me at that time, that's where the, like, the struggle is where you learn who's really on your side.

Yeah, 100%, Lindsay. And those, those situations really didn't mind who you are meant to, right? That's awesome, Lindsay. Thank you so much for mentioning. And Lindsay, like, what an amazing guest, actually. We had today. Pretty amazing session. It was just wonderful. And where can our audience find you mentoring if they need more help from you?

Well, I would say that I, uh, LinkedIn, I'm kind of tapped out there and I'm tapped out on Facebook. So I'm gonna say to Instagram, I still have space on Instagram. So if you go to @asklindseymustain, I'm very interested in connecting with people no matter what stage of your journey. I shared in the group, um, inside of the ClickFunnels community, I said nothing makes me different than you except that I'm louder and I chose to Show up. So I would love to connect with you and be a point of inspiring that you can do this too. There is nothing that's particularly— I went to school at night for 10 years. I started working before I'd even graduated high school. I was homeless as a teenager. I've nearly lost my business twice. You can do this too. You can do this too. So anybody who's listening, please know, and if you need somebody to breathe a little belief into you, that is something we can connect with offline. It's not something I can coach you on typically, but I can give you a little bit of breath of belief because that's going to be the thing that's to change, that somebody sees the potential in you. And since I have that Oracle Genius vibe, I can tell you whether or not you're on to something or whether you're not.

Yeah, awesome, awesome, Lindsay. Thank you so much for the opportunity. And guys, I'll be adding Lindsay's description in the actual description of the podcast, so make sure to check her out on Instagram and ping her, and you're gonna have a good time talking to her for sure. And what an amazing session, Lindsay. You've been impacting great for all of the entrepreneurs you've been working with and the kind of companies you've served. Any last word before we conclude the entire podcast session today?

I just want to say thank you for whoever is listening, because I believe the universe brings you exactly what you need. So thank you for showing up. And the biggest thing I can say is just take the first step, whatever it is, you know, wait for that. There's something that's going, yeah, I know what that is. That's the thing. Go do it today. Don't wait. The universe is waiting for you to show up.

Yeah, absolutely. So don't wait. What? Don't wait for that another person to come and ask you to do something. Maintain that momentum. So momentum is gonna get you to where you want to be. And again, Lindsay, thank you so much for this amazing opportunity. Was really great having you. What a fireball we had on this podcast. Amazing expression, amazing value you actually provided about everything we talked about on how they can actually hack their dream job. So hopefully, guys who watched so far, make sure to really listen to this. She literally broke down every single thing on how you can hack and bring the right expertise into your company, or you can actually how to get leader positions in other companies and everything you imagine. And make sure to hit her on Instagram if you need more help. So hopefully you enjoyed the session. Make sure to really listen to this and take notes and start implementing. Do it. That's the entire summary. Yeah, just do it. Don't wait for anyone else. Absolutely. So hopefully, guys, you enjoyed the podcast session so far. Stay tuned for the next interview, guys. This is me, Dheer Nikhil Sai, and Lindsay Mustaine signing off for today.

Peace.