DAY 3 - Turn Interviews into Job Offers [Reverse the Search LIVE]

Welcome. We are back to Reverse the Search Live, day three. Okay, put a three in the chat if you are here with me. I'm already seeing folks saying hi. You all are always ready. Oh, I'm seeing Seko say big hug from Hot Guinea Bissau. Wow, perfect. Rick is coming in from San Diego, California. I've lived there before. Nice. Killy says Wi-Fi high five. David's here. So good to see you all. John is here from Chicago. Oh, Maria's here from London. Perfect. So good to see you all. And we're getting some 3s in the chat from Karun, Alex, Saad. Oh, welcome back, Saad. So good to see you all. So today is day 3, and we have been rocking 3 days in a row. And today is all about the interview, my friends. Friend. So day 1 was what is costing you job offers and job opportunities. So we were getting clear on what areas of your job search currently need tweaking and improving and how to do that. Day 2 was let's get you more interviews. Let's dive into those strategies to make that happen. You made some commitments. It was perfect. Now day 3 is the big one. It is landing offers from interviews. This is more of the later round interview. We, on day 1, we talked a bit about earlier round interviews and how to ace those. But when I mentioned on that day that it gets more nuanced, and that's what we're talking about today, are some of the more nuanced strategies that I wish I could just spend, you know, 8 hours today talking to you about. But you're going to get some things to work on today that That could be the difference between you landing the offer or not. And day 4 is tomorrow. That's Thursday. You're going to build your job shopping system. Let's reduce the amount of time that you job search. Let's figure out exactly the actions you need to do to make it happen. And then finally, day 5 is going to be really putting this all into action. You're going to see these things actually in practice. You're going to see real examples because I've realized That usually that is a big game changer for people. So, so good to see you all back. I'm seeing a lot of familiar faces here, and da da da. We're doing our early early Black Friday sale. Fifteen hundred dollars off of coaching is currently happening now. We'll put the link to read more about the program, and you can apply. I would say if you're on the fence about applying, just go ahead and apply. So that you can make sure to get your application in and reserve some time with us if it's accepted. And there's no commitment on your end. All right. So we're going to talk about 4 different interview strategies and we're going to dive into Standout Job Search because you all have been asking a lot of questions about what exactly is it, what is my coaching program. So I'll give you an overview of that. And then we're going to go into an interactive Q&A. So make sure you keep putting your questions in the chat because my team is collecting them. Oh, okay. So why do companies keep saying, we liked you, but we went with someone else? Put silver in the chat if you have ever had the silver medal curse, where you go through pretty much an entire interview process, and you get the silver medal when someone else gets the gold, they get the offer, you get the, you were good, you were good, though. And This is actually one of the most devastating things to happen to you because you spent all this time getting to know the company, you've spent all this time preparing, and you've even imagined this future with the company. And it's absolutely shattering when you think you did really well and then suddenly that opportunity doesn't come through. And I'm seeing so many silvers in the chat. It Oh my gosh, I just had 2 of those today. My balloon is bust and I have an early morning interview tomorrow. So first of all, you're rocking it, you're getting interviews, but that's also absolutely, uh, absolutely terrible. And yes, says, I was waiting for day 3, trying to remove the silver medal curse. That's, that's our focus today. And the no feedback rejections leave you confused. So many of us— I mean, I'm curious, like, when you get into final rounds, have any of you gotten feedback, or is it a no-feedback situation? It really makes it so you think, what'd I do wrong? They're actually telling me in the email that I did great, and it's just— it was just competitive candidate pool. What the heck does that mean? And vague feedback creates obsession. So it's this idea of they'll say, well, You know, we're looking for someone who's worked in more fast-paced environments. You're thinking, did you just call me old? Did you say you don't think I can keep up? It's just all this coded language that then swirls in your head and swirls, and it's just, it's not specific enough for you to do anything about it. And it's just, it's terrible. Okay, so I'm seeing, yes, that a lot of y'all are not getting feedback. I know it's, it's tough. And there's immense pressure on the interview. You get one shot and could lose the chance at an entire life trajectory. And I'm not even being dramatic. What job you choose next, where you land next, will truly alter the course of your entire life. How you spend your days, the kind of money you make, who you spend time with, what your next career move ends up being. It is all on this. And so to let it slip through your fingers, you're letting your future slip through your fingers. So there really isn't anything more important than feeling in control, having options, and then choosing the best one. And so I want you to close your other tabs, mute your phone, lock in. If you are multitasking during this hour, it is going to be a wasted hour. Let's get into this. So I tease this on day 2. I believe, or day 1, maybe it was day 1. You need to de-risk yourself in the interview because companies are currently highly risk-averse. We learned on day 1 that companies are hiring about 70% of the employees that they previously hired. And this, this comes at a cost of you now having to prove yourself. They're not as trusting anymore. A lot of the signals they used to use of the way people would write their resumes. You could kind of tell if they're competent enough or not. And now everyone writes them the same way, uh, and all this stuff. And I think about my client Victoria pictured here, uh, though she realized, uh, you know, she joined my coaching program, she wasn't really landing any interviews or anything like that. And then she joined and she optimized her LinkedIn profile. Floods of interviews. Over 50% of her interviews came inbound from for her, but she still had, still had a bit of that silver medal curse. And so what we realized is that her background— she's an operations manager— her background was just slightly different than what she wanted to go for next. And that's the truth for most of you who are high achievers. High achievers typically like to choose jobs that are slightly different or even quite different than what they did before because you want to grow. But unfortunately, that makes you more of a risk because you haven't done this exact work yet. So she wanted to pivot her role. It wasn't even a giant pivot, but in such a competitive market, any pivot at all can be more challenging. And so she started creating these work samples and the show, don't tells and all of that, and was able to absolutely impress multiple companies and ultimately accept an offer for $30,000 more than what she was making before. And she just had tremendous confidence. And I want to give you a few more examples of what those risks are. So we put our clients through an assessment called the worry wheel, where you try to understand what are the worries that the company has about you. And I would like you to put yours in the chat. Do you think that the company is going to be worried about the fact that you have a— you haven't been working for the past 3 years? So maybe your gap. Is it your age that you worry— think they might be worried about? Is it you have a skill gap? Is it that you are coming from a different country? Whatever it is, put that in the chat. And so let's get— take a few examples. So let's say it is a gap, right? You haven't worked for the past 2 years, be it, you know, you've just been out of work or you've been staying at home with a child or whatever it is. So it's not that they don't like you because you haven't been working in a job the past 2 years. They just see you as a risk. Okay. They see you as a risk of, are you still sharp? Have you been keeping up with your skills? It's not that we're judging you for taking a gap. You should be working every single moment of your entire life, but it's, hey, we're bringing on people quickly. We're using a lot of AI. Are you up on the game? Okay, and let's see what what are some of your things. I'm currently a freelancer. I have a skill gap, gap, one year gap. This particular let's see this particular role may not maybe below your pay grade exactly over qualification. That is a completely that is that is a huge one. That's a huge one. Exactly. So the the gap itself is not the issue, and also the gap is the part you cannot change. Okay, so I saw some people talking about age in the chat. A lot of people talk about age. Again, age is something you cannot change. So yes, ageism exists. Everyone wants to hire someone between the ages of 25 to 35 ideally, like that. Even, even in some countries they even specify that. Um, it exists. Now, is it the 100% reason you can't land a job? No. And even you saw Brian come on yesterday saying he was in his 50s, he was really worried about the job market, and yet he absolutely rocked it. Um, in just a matter of weeks after he had been unemployed for 9 months and then just got the program, rocked it in a matter of weeks. So what I'm trying to say is, so, okay, so if age is it, what is the risk hiring someone at your age? What is the risk? I'll tell you some of the red flags that I see people who are potentially older, more seasoned, set off? Well, they instead of, you know, for example, one of my clients said, you know, I was in the interview and the interviewer asked me, hey, you know, the team you would join, the average age is 25. Are you okay with that? And my client took this completely as offensive of, oh my gosh, they think I'm too old. No, no, no. The risk that the employer saw by asking that question was, are you going to enjoy working on a team where you might feel like the odd person out? Are you going to be okay possibly reporting to a manager who is younger than you? So we have to manage that dynamic. So you— I think you need to start getting into the head of the other side. It's not necessarily just a black and white, this is bad about you, this is good about you. It's more of just what does that mean as a team, as an employer? Is this going to cause issues for for us. And so you need to reverse engineer that and figure out what your risk is and work to fix that. Okay. And really de-risk yourself because your job is to silence these fearful voices and instead make them realize that they would be losing out by hiring you. Such as my client here, Matt, he's pictured here. He was going for director of sales roles, but he, he had some major skill gaps. That were getting in the way before he joined my program. And he found himself in the interviews, he felt the interviews were so— felt so stilted. He was like, I have this technical sales degree and I have this much experience and I'm seasoned in this way. And it just felt like he was just pouring out all the things that were great about him and it felt very braggy to him. That's what it that's what it felt like. And put brag in the chat if you've ever felt that way of just like, oh, the interview doesn't feel good. Well, I said, look, Matt, let's, let's take that off the table. And it's funny because I mentioned that this guy's in sales and I told you that interviewing is a high-ticket sale. Yet I will say I have tons of clients in, in marketing and sales and they struggle so much in interviews. Why? Because they can sell anything. They can sell a web to a spider. But they struggle to sell themselves because they're sitting in the bottle and they can't read the label. They are too close to the product to understand how to sell it. So I said, stop trying to sell yourself and instead make these interactions more almost like it's a strategizing session. And that is what he did. He started adopting that and the interviews started coming to the point where they felt like, whoa, it almost feels like Matt's already our leader. It almost feels like Matt's already on the team. And that was really transformative where he was got— it was getting really confident. And I'll tell you this and make sure you write this down. If you are able to clearly articulate someone's pain, They are going to assume you know how to fix it. And that's one of the things that Matt did really well in his interviews is he was able to understand the business, understand the company, relate to them. And it wasn't necessarily him selling himself. I can do this. I can do this for you. But because he was able to speak to them and make the company feel really understood, they felt like, well, he's our guy to solve this. And that is— and y'all, this is quite advanced stuff. So I hope you're writing vigorously and I hope you're really taking this in because every other coach is telling you, be creative with the way you talk about yourself. You know, talk about your best accomplishments. And in some ways that can be helpful, but that's kind of like the lower level of interviewing. When we're talking about winning at the very final, final stage, this is the stuff that can really get you ahead. So I, I wouldn't be able to talk about winning in the final interview if I didn't mention the interview ladder. So this is a cornerstone of really analyzing how you are doing in interview processes. I'll go ahead and show you the ladder. So let's see. So this is, this is my platform here that all my clients use. And we have them go through assessment called the interview ladder here. And you can retake the assessment throughout the program to like see what your scores are. And so essentially, when we think about the interview process, almost all of us think about these 3 things here. So, you know, interests, skills, and likability. This is typically what we think leads to a job offer. But especially as you advance in your career and sometimes if it gets very competitive towards the end of an interview process, These 4 things have to also be in place in order for you to win. So, you know, I've already given examples for multiple of these, and you really want to— I think too many of us are focusing too low on the ladder. And frankly, if you're early in your career, if you just have these, these first 3 here, then you are probably fine. But it's really as you advance. And so I have my clients go through this assessment. It shows what their biggest gaps are. It shows what they're strongest in. It gives suggestions of like, okay, here's what it means. Here's how it matters. Here's how you improve. And so really working your way up the ladder is super important to make sure that you are making sure that you're not missing anything. And your score would be different than the next person and all that kind of stuff. And the main thing is that so many of us are stuck in this mentality that your professional skills, um, are the main event of an interview. Basically, if you land especially the second round interview, you're all on the same even playing field. Yes, others will have more experience than you, all that kind of stuff, but the only reason they still win the offer is not— is likely because the facts themselves are quite persuasive. The fact that they have experience with that, with their exact competitor, is more persuasive. But if you can present yourself in a more persuasive way, if you can climb the ladder and hit on all 7 rungs, that can overcome that factual persuasion. And if you don't believe me, I mean, look at the companies you've worked in. Look at the jobs you've had. There's tons of people working companies all the time. Who had very little experience. They had the gumption, they made it happen. They had an unconventional background and they were still able to break in. This happens all the time. And so I would say just focusing less on just it only being about skills and really understanding that you can transform an interview process. And I have so many success stories along that vein of getting rejected at a company, revamping the interview strategy and then re-interviewing with them. And then suddenly they love you. And what that teaches us is that interviewing is a skill. And so if there's anything you take away from today is really work on your interviewing. I don't, I don't necessarily think you need more education. I don't necessarily think you need more certifications, though that can sometimes be helpful. Let's work on your interviewing. Okay. The 3rd strategy I want to touch on is be exactly who they are looking for. Okay. So I was in New York City a few weeks ago. I've already told you about LinkedIn's invite-only summit that they flew me in for and all that kind of stuff. Yes, that was awesome. But I also did a live event and I invited you to it. If you're on my email list, I invited you to it. And I also was able to meet a lot of my clients in person, which was phenomenal. But one thing that kept coming up with the struggles that the people in the room were facing is it a lot of times came down to so many of the professionals that were in that room that night were multifaceted, multi-passionate. They had mosaic careers where there was a lot of different aspects to them. And that actually is what made them a good worker. But it's what made them a non-persuasive job seeker. So what I mean by that is they were giving information that wasn't as persuasive, and they were too close to their own story. And you need to cut out basically 80% of your career and like even 80% of what you did at your previous job in some cases, and only focus on the 20% that that company is asking for. And what are they asking for? You can see it in the job description. You can ask questions in the interview. They often give a description. I will write down that description and keywords and things that they're saying to fully understand and then mirror that back in the interview answers. So I would say it's extremely painful. I even had one of my clients, she was a stay-at-home mom for a long time and I had her delete like basically the almost all of her volunteer work that she did over the course of 6 years. And she said it was so painful to remove that. And I said, it's not doing the selling. It's not helping you to be a healthcare product manager, full stop. And so I think a lot of us are holding onto our story. And so you truly, instead of saying like, well, I am this type of professional who's transitioning into this and targeting this. It's like, no, no, no. You are the end result. Focus on that. Stop Stop, stop telling the story. Stop talking about the other facets of what makes you interesting. Don't mention that you have a legal degree and how that makes you more astute as an account manager. No, it's we need to get so much more narrow. And I know a lot of career coaches will say things like find your unique value, find what makes you unique, and what's your best accomplishment. I'm telling you right now, in this job market, companies want square peg. Square hole. Don't try to be unique. Try to be exactly what they're asking for. If they're asking for a specific industry, don't even talk about other industries. Don't even mention like, oh, I'm a professional who's worked in this industry, this industry, and that industry. Don't even mention the other industries. Like only focus on exactly what they're looking for. Because if you think about it as a high-ticket sale, imagine if I walked up to you and I said, hey, I'm looking for a car. I really want it to be light blue and it has to have a cup holder that will fit my cup. If you start talking to me about the V6 engine and the passenger airbags, you are going to lose me, right? Immediately walk me to the light blue cars. Immediately put the cup in the cup holder. Show me that it's exactly what I want, right? It doesn't matter that what I'm asking for is kind of dumb. That is what the company is asking for. So it really is something that, you know, maybe it sounds kind of simple, but it's actually something really hard to get through people's heads. So I really want you to brand yourself as face sunscreen. So put in the chat how much percentage-wise per ounce do you think this exact face sunscreen costs per ounce than the bigger one. So the, the, the one over here is face sunscreen and the other one is a, it's like a full body sunscreen. And I think we can both all guess that the face sunscreen is more expensive per ounce, but by how much? 10% more? 50% more? 100% more? What do you think? Put that in the chat. Put your guess. So I looked up these, these exact Sunscreen bottles. And I was thinking, what is the difference? So I looked at the ingredients, and the ingredients for these 2— your face sunscreen is branded as face sunscreen and body sunscreen— only have one ingredient difference: fragrance. It is the exact same product bottled differently. And this is the way most face sunscreens are. And here, let me actually put everyone's thoughts up on the chat. So, and so, okay, so I'm seeing 60%, 50%, 30%, 25% more, right? Okay, good, good, good. So if you, you know, so even you might see some of these ingredients are in a different order, so the formulation is slightly different for a different consistency, but it is the Same exact ingredients except for fragrance. And face sunscreen costs 118% more than the body sunscreen. And what you really have to take away from this is people are willing to pay and they seek out the specialist, the person who's, who's solving that specific issue. And even though these 2 basically have the same work history, right? If we call the ingredients the work history list, these 2 have the same work history. But guess what Face did? They only focused on the face. They said, you have a beautiful face. I'm gonna take care of your face. Your face is not gonna get pimples. I got you face. And the other one said, well, yes, I can do your face. But guess what? I can do your arms. I could do your legs. I can do your toes. And that one is worth less. And so in the job search, I found, and this is what I do with my clients, is I make them face sunscreen. I make them exactly the picture of what these companies are looking for, even though they can do it all, even though there's so many things about you. I'm never buying face sunscreen again. I know, right? I was just, I'm kind of going through down this rabbit hole and I didn't even I wasn't even expecting it to be this, this dramatic. And exactly, I'm like, hmm, I pay a lot for a face end screen. Exactly, exactly. So the fourth thing I want you to do is I want you to ask for the job. There's a line between desperate and interested. It one repels, the other attracts. So where is the line, my friend? Now I don't believe in the job search that you should be playing it coy to play it cool of well, I don't know if I even really want to work here blah blah. That doesn't work. Don't do that. But we also don't want to sound desperate. So let me show you the two differences between. Desperate and interested. Okay, so desperate sounds like this. Um, yeah, I mean, I like— I could do any of those roles that you mentioned. I'm kind of— I'm up for anything. I really want to get my foot in the door, so I'm really up for anything. Never say you want to get your foot in the door. That is like an immediate, immediate rejection. Okay, stuff like that. Yeah, I'm up for anything. Yep, yep, I just want to get my foot in the door. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm ready to start whenever. No, I don't, I don't have any questions. No, I know, let's do it. Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm really up, I'm up for anything. Okay, no perspective, uh, no, no drive in certain directions, uh, no specifics, a little bit too open. That's the— that's what comes off as, as desperate. What comes off as interested? Well, I'm glad you asked. I have an exact script on how to sound interested. Okay, so I want you to say this at the end of your next interview. So you say, from this interview process so far and talking to other companies, you all are my number one choice employer. Now, you should only say this to your number one choice. And whether, you know, no matter how many interviews any, no matter how many companies you're interviewing with, there will be a number one choice. Of course, even if even if there's just one company you're interviewing with, you still call them your number one choice because that's also that's still true. So only say this to your number one choice, but you all are my number one choice. And then I want you to add a genuine compliment, such as. The team has had such a great rapport that you don't normally see, right? And try to make it as specific and genuine as possible. Don't just, you know, have you have some sort of AI-generated idea of what what could I say here? No, truly, what have you noticed? What is a compliment about the company, about the team, about the people who have been interviewing you? Anything that's actually genuine. And then I want you to say what you like best about the role. So now you're talking, you're not talking about the team and the company. You're talking about the actual role, the things you'll be doing, and say what you like best about the role. So something like the focus on X is exactly what I was looking for in my next role. So the focus on blah blah blah blah and doing this this this. Those are the types of things I really enjoy doing, right? Whatever that is. And that's what makes that's what I feel makes this role a great fit. I look forward to what's next. And so this is what interest sounds like. You are stating that this is your number one choice. If it— if ever a company, a role is your number one choice, you never hide that information. Companies, when all else is equal, they choose the person who wants the opportunity more. And so, oh, I love this. We got a Love Is Blind reference here as well. Love it. Love it. Exactly. You can't tell them all you love them. You look like a putz. So, and so you, so you have to, you say this to your number one choice. And but the thing is that makes it not sound sycophantic is it sounds earned. Notice that there's compliments and there's specifics here. If you just say, I want this job and you don't have specifics and you don't fill it out, then it feels unearned. It feels like you're just saying that and you're desperate. But this, this type of answer, being specific, saying, here, I— you are my top choice and here is why. This is an amazing way to end an interview. And it makes them much more motivated to extend you an offer. And it's also putting into their head why you're such a good fit. You're connecting some of the dots for them quite quickly. And so that this can make This can make all the difference. And so I want you to start ending your interviews this way, to really leave that right impression so that they know they don't leave this thinking, I wonder, I wonder if he actually wants this job, because you'd be surprised how often that's the case. And send a thank you email, my friend. Send a thank you email. That very few people send them. Only about 20% of people send them. You might as well. Okay, so make sure you are de-risking your candidacy. Make sure you master the 7 levels of the interview letter. 3, be exactly who they are looking for. Cut out the other information. And also go ahead and ask for the job. Be interested over seeming desperate. And, uh, this is, this is, uh, these are all messages that I got within the past like week or so from my clients. And they said, it took me a little while to shake off interviewing rust, but it seems like it's working. I have 2 follow-up interviews coming up for roles I'd be happy to take. And I, I love this point of the, of shaking off rust because it is so interesting. You can practice in your head and think through interviews, but then actually doing things out loud and actually, you know, doing the interview, it feels completely different. So there is kind of rust to it. And that's why we try to get our clients warmed up before interviews to where the first time they're speaking out these answers out loud is not the interview. Um, this person says, I had an awesome interview yesterday. The team culture sounded great and the work was exactly what I'd like to do. Um, the interview prep module was on point in helping me get ready. Thank you, team. Yes. So when you saw the, the, you know, interview, uh, interview, let's see this, uh, the interview ladder and all this kind of stuff, this, this is what she was talking about is, uh, you know, all the different tools we have here for, for our clients and, and all that to prep for the interview. So that is great to hear. And this one was really interesting. So today's coaching call win. The recruiter for a role I interviewed for today had been following the changes in my leadership at my company on LinkedIn. So basically asked the exact question from our coaching call related to my transition out of my current role. Yikes. And asked it several different ways. Whew. That was a super valuable conversation that turned an awkward story into my superhero story. Thank you, SGS team. So put me in the chat if maybe the reason you left your last job or one of your other jobs, it wasn't because it wasn't necessarily on the best terms. Maybe it was a toxic situation. Maybe you just really didn't feel comfortable there anymore. Maybe you just had a bad manager. And I was walking through the question, you know, why did you— why you want to leave your job with her? And she gave an answer. And I was like, look, I'm going to be honest as an interviewer, I'm going to ask follow-up questions. And I'm not totally buying what you're saying. And I'm— it's actually reflecting poorly on you. And she goes, oh my gosh. And so I said, here, here's how you rephrase your answer. And I gave it to her in a way where she was elevated as the hero of the story of where no one was a victim and that she was— it was more showing that she's helping out and now she's transitioning out and it's, it's all for the best. And it gave her so much confidence. And I just want to say that it's amazing how there's so many different ways that you can rephrase things like gaps or, uh, why'd you leave that job, that you're not lying, but you're also framing it in a way that actually empowers you and puts you in the driver's seat versus making— makes it this like awkward, oh yeah, things, things got weird in this job and all of that. So just know that there's definite ways that you can push through this. So yes, David says me, definitely me. Yes. And there's so many of us. There's so many of us who have gone through these types of experiences. And I want you to know that you're likely going to win the interview by centimeters, not meters. And that's how you're going to lose too. So I really do think that a lot of you who are having this silver medal curse, it's not because you are doing these tragically terrible moves in the interview that is losing you the opportunity. It is small nuanced things that with the right feedback, with the right, uh, information, you can actually really overcome it. And so it's, it's tough. And so a lot of you will then ask me, okay, my situation is nuanced, how can you help? And I've been talking about all this week, um, really this session is, is kind of like a way for you to see my coaching style so that you can get strategies. And as well as if you do feel like you want actual hands-on, one-on-one support, one-on-one help on your experience, that if you so want it, that you can move towards, uh, our enrolling in our program. So to give you a bit of context around that, I'll share a bit about my program, Standout Job Search. So that is my coaching program, and it's specifically designed for corporate professionals and also nonprofit as well. And we— it's for those who don't have the time to figure this out alone and don't want to risk missing out on the right opportunity. You don't want to have things pass you by month after month when that could have changed your future. So what do you get with this? I know I've been talking about the program all week, but here's actually what comes with it. So you get a custom plan. So you stop wasting time. You know exactly what you need to focus on day to day. You get exact targeting. So you know what you're focused on, how you're going to position yourself. I keep talking about how you need to be the square peg for the square hole. We help you to be that exact target so that we're reducing rejections, increasing your confidence. You'll get noticed. So we'll get the edits on your resume, optimize your LinkedIn profile so you can get more of that inbound attention. And those companies saying, oh my gosh, this person's perfect, we need them. We'll, we'll take applications off of your plate so that you can save several hours a day of just trolling job boards and making sure you're applying very quickly and all that kind of stuff. No, we take that off your plate for you. Since that is so time-consuming so that you can focus on relationship building, prepping for the interviews you've, you've landed, all that kind of stuff. Then we help you master interviewing. So you become that offer machine where you're more confident than ever. We're helping you work through different answers so that you then are really confident about your story. It feels honest. It feels real. You feel like you're actually connecting with interviewers, possibly for the first time in your career. It is so you feel really good about interviews and it becomes more of this fun shopping for your next opportunity versus a performative slog that it often feels like. And then we'll help you negotiate your best offer. I mean, you really— there's not really many conversations in your life that can be the difference between thousands and thousands of dollars. So we're there for you. And I think if you're thinking about this, the pros and the cons, I've joined a lot of different programs myself and I always think about the cost of inaction. So if you are currently running into challenges in your job search, if you're not getting the number of offers you had hoped for, there's a risk of you're wasting hundreds of hours. You could have amazing opportunities slipping through your fingers that aren't going to pop up for, again, for a long time. You could have poor employment decisions because you just kind of take the first thing and you aren't able to shop around and you could lose whatever it is for your profession, $10,000 every month if you are unemployed. And the benefit of action is you get your time back, your most valuable asset. You get to go job shopping for your career where you're thinking about the potential and the opportunities and choosing the one that's best for you. And you are absolutely guaranteed to win now and lifelong if you go all in. Every single client we've had who said, failure is not an option, they just do amazingly and they just land a job so quickly. And if you come in with that attitude of, I'm going to do the work, I'm going to get in the zone, I'm going to trust Madeline. Brian even said it yesterday. He's like, even if Madeline tells you to do something and you're not really sure why you're doing it, just do it. Just do it. And so the goal is to minimize your time investment while maximizing your chances of landing The right role. And so most people at your level do not struggle because you're not capable. That is not the debate here. It's you're— they struggle because they don't have time or structured support to execute at a high level of consistency. And that's what we're here to do is really make sure that— and you'll see we have, you know, it's all proprietary of our, like, our Can't— our client dashboard. But basically, we have a dashboard of all the opportunities that are being applied to and all that. And we can tell, are we off track? Are we on track? Do we need to revamp your LinkedIn, revamp your resume? Like, let's keep it data-driven, right? Because even if you were here for day one, Kaya, we had a few stumbles. We weren't, we weren't quite getting the opportunities right away. But that's why you have a team, is because when things aren't quite working, you're able to pivot to your unique situation. and find something that's amazing. And then she ended up landing 2 offers. So what comes in the program is we will optimize your resume, your LinkedIn profile, your cover letter. We will do the job applications for you. We will then have a dedicated career coach to you, for you to do one-on-one coaching. You'll get job interview prep where you'll get unlimited opportunities to submit mock interviews and real interview recordings where our coaches will review I think Chaya even mentioned that. She's like, I sent Madeline like 5 hours of interviews and I listened to all of them. And you also get our complete suite of on-demand proprietary tools. And there's also a lot more there and everything you need. Yes. And Saad joined SGS yesterday and already feeling the momentum. Yes. Arianna mentioned that she was like, Saad came in to onboarding and was like, let's go. Let's go faster than the timeline Madeline recommended. And we are all about that, Saad. We were like, yes, that is why I'm so glad you came. And that's why we do these sessions because it attracts people like you who are saying, oh, I'll get around to it. I'll get around to it. You're like, no, I'm going to win. I joined this program. I'm going to win. So I would say apply today. No commitment required. We'll put the link in the chat. And enrollment closes on Tuesday, October 27th, okay, at 9:00 PM Pacific. So make sure you get it done by then. Programs start at $8,499 and you will get $1,500 off as long as you enroll by Tuesday, October 27th. So definitely take advantage of that discount. That is our Black Friday dealio. So go ahead and go to www.selfmadeweight.com/learn. We'll also put that in the chat, in the description, everywhere. So, you know, if you're curious, if you want to talk about it, apply. We've already rejected a good amount of people. We really do not accept everyone. So we will be honest with you if this is just not the right fit because we Work so closely with you now, especially that we have the, that we apply for you aspect. We work so closely with you and it's so many man hours of our team that we can really only partner with people where it is the right mutual fit. So we also have a conditional placement guarantee. We guarantee that you will land a job offer in 90 days as long as you meet our requirements and do the work. And we will help you get that offer, or we will continue to coach you until you do. Trust me, stay on the deadline, make it happen, meet our requirements. You've got this. And we're also throwing in a few free bonuses, absolutely at no additional cost. The Show Don't Tell Idea Generator. I mentioned that for what Victoria used earlier, how she was able to show, kind of get over her skill gap. She used this. We're going to throw this in absolutely for free with this, with this enrollment period, as well as the LinkedIn VIP workshop. So you might have heard I brought this up yesterday of how my clients who go through this, they see an immediate uptick in the number of impressions and profile views and sometimes even interview requests on their profile after doing this session with me. It's such a good session. You kind of like hunker down and get it done. We're giving this to you absolutely for free as long as you pay in full. Fast action. So by this Friday. So you can't wait until Tuesday, unfortunately, if you want to get this one. Just if you're, if you're decisive, if you know what you want, pay in full by Friday at 9 PM Pacific. You'll get it, my friend. Okay. So here's everything. You got the resume transformation. So we'll make sure that your resume is the best possible version it can be. LinkedIn optimization so that people are searching for people like you. Those opportunities are coming inbound. The done-for-you applications. So you take off 30%, 40% of the time you were spending job seeking on that and reallocate it towards other parts of your search or your life. Unlimited interview feedback so that you are upleveling in interviews quickly and effectively in a way that is extremely specific to you. One-on-one coaching so that it's very specific coaching to your situation, negotiation support. So we're helping you in the very crucial moments of your search. Um, the proprietary member site access, which all the tools I've showed you, I don't lock, you know, those, all those ones that you've seen, I'm not, those all are included. Um, the show, don't tell idea generator is a bonus, the conditional placement guarantee so that you don't have to worry about, oh, you know, am I going to do a good job? Yes. You're going to get a job. We're here for you. And the LinkedIn VIP session, as long as you pay in full by Friday. All right. So like I said, we'll put the link in the chat. Go ahead and apply and get on our calendar so we can, we can make this happen if it's the right fit. Go to www.selfmadewade.com/learn. Remember, Tuesday is the last day to get the deal. All right, my friends. I love this. Great bonuses, says Lillian. Oh, I'm glad to hear it. And yes, so, and then I see the question of what day or times are weekly calls? So I do, yes, I do a weekly call called Strategic Advisory each week that where folks can tune in and it kind of switches between just like a pure office hours and then also like where I'm actually like teaching a full full-on workshop where I'm like, we're working on this today, let's make it happen, let's get— let me give you real-time feedback. Um, and that's usually on the Thursday afternoons. But, uh, all of the one-on-one coaching sessions are just at whenever you are able to do it and your coach is able to do it. So, uh, and if you can't make it to like the group ones, you, you can get the recordings. But then the other— all the other coaching sessions with your, with your coach, those are at your leisure. You guys can just agree on a time that feels good for you. Amazing. Well, oh, thank you, Madeline Mann. Oh, thank you. Thank you. So we are now moving into the Q&A section, which is where we are going to just dive into your questions live. And as we're kind of getting those questions together, I will say, Deciding to do coaching is a really big question. And if you are looking for other people's situations, here on my site, we have tons of video testimonials. I'm very specific about having videos more than written ones, because I think in this day and age, there's just too much. It's too easy to just kind of spin up a photo and some words. And I've even had issues with some of my competitors even posting things online about me on burner accounts where they're pretending to be other people and stuff like that. And it's like, okay, let me actually just get real people on video because I will say it is, I personally also invest in programs and it's really scary. I don't know if I can trust the programs I'm doing. There's something that I've been meaning to sign up for, but I just didn't trust it for a while. And then finally I heard from someone who I actually know and went through it and they're like, oh yeah, it was amazing. You should definitely do it. And I was so annoyed by that because I was thinking I should have done that sooner, but I just didn't trust it. I didn't know anyone who'd gone through it. I didn't know if this was good. And I will say it's so tough. It's so tough to tell these days what is good, what is not. So that's why I do. I have tons of videos that you all can see of folks who have been through the program, and as well as I go live because I think that you need to see someone in this day and age, in this day and age of AI, you need to see someone who is not scripted. You could tell this none none of this is scripted. Of course, I have slides, but none of this is scripted. It's all on the fly. And in this day and age of AI, someone could just be feeding me information and this could all be a simulation. So definitely be discerning. And I think that's important. All right. Let's get to the questions. Do you coach directly or is the coaching done by your team? So we have a team of coaches. So yes, I do tons of the direct coaching and also depending on what So we have different packages, if you'll say, and for some of the packages, I am 100% the dedicated coach. But even if I'm not your dedicated coach, even if you go for like a different package where it's not me, I'm still extremely involved. And I do the coaching sessions every week, and I'm in every single channel with each individual client, um, watching, listening, and contributing as well. Um, yes. Oh my gosh, David has been burned by companies that didn't show they were good. Madeline shows her skills regularly in her YouTube videos. Thank you, David. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I know I've put out hundreds of hours of content at this point, so, you know, I think for some people I'm your vibe, for others I am not. your vibe. So yeah, you can watch the content, be like, is she worth it? And then a lot of you, you saw a lot of my clients read my book first and were like, oh, oh wait, she really knows what she's talking about. So I think it's important. It's important that you all are— that there's enough out there that you can see, um, if I'm legit. All this direction is so valuable. Oh, I'm so glad to, to hear that. Um, Yes, Bonnie says, I wish I'd known about this a year ago. I wasted my time and money on other programs and coaches. I spent thousands. I wish I invested in your program instead. I know. And it's, you know what, Bonnie, it's so tough to know. Like, that's what I'm saying is, is I've also, I've spent money on amazing programs before and I've also spent money on programs that were really good at marketing but were not great. And it's so difficult. I know. And that's why I just try to bring on people live and I try to see know what I'm about and you just have to make up your mind. Are you saying every other program is not worth trying or do you have any suggestions to those who are not great fit for yours? So it totally depends on who you are. So we definitely don't accept everyone. Some people, it's just not the right fit. And so yeah, I was actually thinking about earlier when I made the comment about my competitors, some of them, making up fake accounts. I also send people to my competitors all the time if like we're at capacity or if they just service a different type of person or anything like that. So exactly. All right, let's see. Let's see. Okay, okay, cool. So I'm seeing some good questions come in. So How would I answer, where do you see yourself in five years, when I have no idea? Okay, perfect, Sergio. So none of us know where we're going to be in five years. A few things: never bring up anything personal. So never say, oh, I would like to get married, or I'd like to get a house, or anything like that. Never, and also avoid this is this one is probably pretty surprising to folks. Don't. Bring up job titles. So don't say, well, I'd like to be the VP in 5 years or anything like that. You— if, if that is true, don't talk about the title. Talk about what you would accomplish in order to make it there, because the title is just a title. But what would you be doing in order to earn that title? So, um, and also never talk about possibly switching industries or starting your own coffee shop or anything like that. That's all bad. So instead, what you want to focus on is possibly something like, well, I, over the next 5 years, typically want to talk about this current role. So first you'd say, well, I want to be the go-to person for the, for the digital marketing team in, for the, you know, growth marketing segment or whatever it is, right? Whatever you're interviewing for. And I want to build my reputation as someone, as the go-to person for that and strong. And, you know, I, Originally would be taking on possibly smaller projects, but I'd hope over the next 5 years I would take on larger projects and have larger budget and blah, blah, blah. Right? I'm essentially explaining what it would look like for them to get promoted or what it would look like if this, in this case, it would be, quote, me, what it would be like for me to get promoted without actually saying the titles. And so that they go, oh, Sergio really wants this job. And so, because the entire answer is about essentially you growing in this job, that's what they want to hear. All right. My least favorite things are selling and self-promotion. How to reframe thinking about interviews when it's a high-ticket sale, says Molly. Yes. So here's the thing. First of all, we do need to shift. I worry, Molly, you might be someone who tends to say we in interviews. I'm guessing, you know, you might say, well, we did this and we did that. Truthfully, that is doing a disservice to the interviewer. So they want to hear I, I did this, I did that, all that kind of stuff. And so you need to start framing your answers in I, and I know it might feel a little funny, but you want to keep it really factual. So a lot of us were taught to interview in a way where we have to say, well, I'm really creative and I'm innovative and I'm seasoned. Never, ever use an adjective in an interview to describe yourself. You don't need it. So if I want to convey that I am creative, instead of saying I am creative, I might say something like, I, you know, we weren't, we weren't able to get much attention with those ads. So I came up with the idea that the person walking onto the screen would have their fly unzipped in the first 3 seconds of the video. And then we talked about this and those ads took off. Right. And so you're basically just describing what happened and the person thinks like, oh, that's pretty creative that they, that they came up with that solution and all that kind of stuff. And so if you're describing things and describing your thought process and all that, you're not— that's actually selling yourself. a lot versus you actually having to be like, I'm the best. I'm so smart. Okay. So uncomfortable saying I. I knew it, Molly. I knew it. We got to change that. I was actually listening to a client's interview today. Today. I've actually, I think I listened to 3 interviews today of my clients. And the interviewer stopped him and said, Please stop saying we. I need to know what you did. So it's, it's so important. And she said, you were right. Yes. Um, so let's see. Um, my last interview with a dream company for my dream job ended extremely well. Was told I'm right for the role, hit all the points you mentioned earlier, and yet 7 weeks later, nothing. Oh my gosh. Okay, so there's several things that could have happened here. So first of all, there could be things that are happening behind the scenes that truly have nothing to do with you. Someone left the company, someone— they reorged, they dropped a client, they dropped a project, they added a project. Now the skills and who they want for this role is different. None of that has to do with you. So that could happen. Um, second, they could have just gotten a detour of their focus on something else. I don't know how much, how many times you followed up, but it would be a good idea to follow up. Um, but on the other side, yes, you could have eked it out. Someone could have eked it out from you. I will say I once was interviewing with a company. They told me, they literally, the recruiter, after I finished the interview, the final interview, he said, all right, well, like, you're, you're the final person. And we actually are going to add one more interview, but you're the only one who's going to be going through that. You just have to meet the top boss and that's it. And then you'll meet the top boss and— but congratulations, you're the only one in the process now. You beat out all the other candidates. I was like, perfect. So I met the top boss and I didn't hear back for weeks. And I was so confused. And eventually I just got an email that said, hello, we actually offered the position to another person and And they have accepted. Thank you. I think what happened is I took that final interview too casually. I think I because I thought I didn't. I thought of it as a coffee meeting, but actually that that executive started drilling me with questions, and I was not in the mode for it. And it was earlier in my career. You know, it was a stupid mistake on my end. But yeah, it would be interesting to listen to that interview to see what happened. Oh my gosh, and Bonnie went through something similar. Uh, the book is my job search Bible. I love to hear it, y'all. You've, you've just been— words of affirmation is, is my love language. So the fact that y'all have been saying such great things about Reverse the Search is so wonderful. And just, you know, the, the currency of the book world is reviews. So if you have read Reverse the Search and you loved it, please leave a review. It really makes all of the difference. You could do it on Amazon or Goodreads. It's super helpful. Okay. So when an employer says that they select another candidate despite a positive interview, how would you recommend diagnosing the actual problem when they provide little to no meaningful feedback? Okay. So this is something that is super hard to do on your own. When I like Haya, who was here on Monday, she told me— she talked about how I— she got rejected and I was able to reverse engineer the 2 moments in the call that she lost the interviewer, which was something around industry and then something around like her— she was like focusing too much on research in her interview. And Chaya, like after I told her that, she says, oh my gosh, I completely— it completely went over my head that those were the 2 moments I lost her. Um, but one thing, like one shortcut you can do is if you recorded your interview or you transcribed it or something like that, you can look at their follow-up questions because sometimes their follow-up questions can be really revealing. Of, you know, okay, but did you do that in this industry? Or, but was that— how big of a team was that? Or anything like that. Like when they're kind of inquiring further, their follow-up questions will often reveal what their hesitations about you are. All right. Let me double-check everything. Okay, so raise my hand. I am we person, team player interviewing. You got to be the I person. Exactly, exactly. I think I'm doing better today, a better because today I did say when I talked about my experience and my strengths as well. Yes, perfect. Oh, and you did several follow-ups. I'm so sorry. Oh, when you are close to retirement age, how do you present yourself in interviews to maximize experience and not be seen as less competitive against much younger candidates? Interesting. It's interesting that you use the phrasing to maximize experience. I'm actually curious to know what that means to you, to maximize experience. Experience. Because if you're, if you're alluding to the fact that because you are potentially more tenured than your competitors, like how to use that to your advantage, that should not be your focus. Do not try to play up your quantity of experience. That is actually a huge mistake that a lot of people who are more experienced make. The currency of the job market right now is not quantity of experience. Because if you got a, you know, if you've been doing marketing for 35 years, you know, that the experience marketing was completely different than it is today and all that kind of stuff. So what they're looking for is your ability to evolve and to be consistently upleveling. So I would focus on how are you upleveling in this job market in this day and age. So really emphasize that. So does your 90-day guarantee that an offer meets my agreed salary is 100% remote, full-time, and permanent, not contract? So I would say we you can take a look at our like terms and conditions. You know, it would really I'd have we'd have to actually also like look at your actual. You know, like, I, I don't know what your salary requirement is and if it's actually— because we, we do it based on research, right? And the number of roles that are actually out there in the market. So, you know, we can tell you whether or not your expectations are reasonable or not. And like some roles, there's like barely any remote roles, others are not. So it really— it's— that's why we're very cautious about letting not just anyone in the program Because we have to see the full picture. All right. Yay. Thank you for answering my question. That was awesome. And seeing your empathetic expression. Oh my gosh. Well, I have no idea if transcribing them is legal or not. I mean, writing notes for a meeting is legal to my understanding. So if I could get a Wi-Fi high five in the chat. This has been absolutely my pleasure. Come back for day 4. We are only 2 days left, so make sure you are here again for day 4. We are really going to be further diving into exactly what is going to be your plan. How are you going to put this into attack? Let's really— and I know there's been so many broad strokes in this, in these sessions where we really need to dive in specifically to how you are going to make this all happen. So let's reduce the amount of hours you're job searching. Next week, or sorry, not next week. Tomorrow. Let's do this tomorrow and Friday. And yet again, I will be here answering your questions live. That's the super fun part about this is like y'all are noticing if you're here live, you're getting. I'm I'm just picking up your questions as they come along. It's it's my absolutely my pleasure. So I'm going to send you away with a.