Glen Gould shares job-search and networking strategies at a community meeting, drawing on his experience with Hurricane Charlie, a dry-cleaning business, and Chamber of Commerce work. He walks through identifying targets, building an association list, asking for referrals, and crafting a statement of value to land purposeful meetings.
9 years, 3 days ago, Glen Gould did his first devotional here at Job Seekers. What a blessing you've been in our life. What a blessing you've been in this community. So thank you for 10 years of service here at Job Seekers. Thank you. And elsewhere in our community. Let's give Glen a warm welcome.
Thank you, Dave. That was surprising. 9 years and 3 days. And this week is going to be This is kind of an interesting week for our family because it was 14 years ago, and I guess about 8 days, 7 days, that Hurricane Charlie went through Punta Gorda, Florida, where we lived. And that was a defining moment in our family's lives. The whole town was just decimated. I won't go into the whole story. Some of you may have heard it before. I've told the story here, but it's not my topic for today. But it's just interesting how certain things happen at certain times of the year, and they're really kind of powerful. Our dry cleaning business that we own, our pickup and delivery service, we celebrated 8 years in business this week as well. So it's kind of, kind of just surprising. I like to start my talks here with a Bible verse, and I chose this morning, I chose Proverbs 1:5. A wise man will hear and increase in learning. A man of understanding will acquire wise counsel. So I want to know if you are supported by wise counsel. Are you? Yes. Because it's an important question that you really have to think about, especially when you're in a situation of a job search. Are you surrounding yourself with people who are wise, that you can listen to, that can help you. If you're here today, of course, that's one of those groups. But every moment of every day, you have to be on your guard. You can't allow yourself to be drawn into a negative situation where— because, because those thoughts are already there. They're already kind of running around here. You're feeling a little defeated. You don't need any help there, right? And one of the questions that I want to ask you is what did you hope to accomplish by coming here today? Did you think about that? Because I hate to say it, please don't raise your hand, but I hate to say it, most of you didn't. You're looking for a job, you go to Job Seekers. It makes sense, right? And, but if you come to a meeting with the intention of something in particular happening, you're gonna be a lot better off. So as I mentioned, defining moment. I had a defining moment in my life, and I don't know if it was in August. I'd like to think it was since, since all of this has been talked about. But I had a defining moment in my life a number of years back, about 16, 17 years ago, maybe a little bit longer than that. I really tried to trace it back And I don't know the exact year it happened. I think it was 2000. I think it might have been '99, 2000, somewhere right in there, but 15, 18 years ago, I met a lady. Her name is Kathy Lehner. And as you can see, Kathy has a very big smile. Kathy, at the time, was a real estate agent in Venice, Florida. And if you've heard me talk at all ever before, Somewhere along the line, I bring up Kathy and I say, if you ever want to buy real estate in Florida, seek out my friend Kathy Lehner, because that's the impact she had on my life. I'm always trying to promote her. Well, as it turns out, now she's the CEO of the Venice Area Chamber of Commerce. They made the smartest move they could ever make because Kathy was and is Venice, Florida. I mean, it's just— she's plugged into everything. But Kathy invited me to to a Chamber of Commerce event. Now, how many of you have gone to a Chamber of Commerce event? Please raise your hand. Okay. Some people are going to say, "Wow, those are not very exciting," right? But let's just be honest. Most people think chamber's a waste of time. Well, I can tell you that this one Chamber of Commerce meeting fundamentally changed my life. It was a defining moment in my life when she asked me the question when she met me at the door, "Who do you need to meet? Because you see, I was in business but I had no idea who I needed to meet. I'd never thought of it. I never once thought, oh, maybe I'll go to this meeting and meet Bob Smith or Mary Jones or someone in particular. I just thought you go to the meeting and hang out and have a drink and maybe some hors d'oeuvres and hopefully it doesn't get on your clothes. And you throw a bunch of business cards at people and something might happen, right? Doesn't work that way. It's not very effective. But I can tell you, because of this one question and the way I reacted to it, my life changed forever. And the reason it changed forever is because I then realized someone somewhere is currently in possession of whatever I need or want All I need to do is put together a plan to meet the right person, and I'm golden. Now, I'm not the smartest guy around, I gotta tell you this, but this series of events changed everything. It's the reason I speak at job seekers, because I lived in Punta Gorda, Florida at the time. How would I be speaking here? But because I was asked, "Who do you need to meet?" I came up with the realization that someone somewhere is in possession of anything I want, and all I need to do is figure out who I want to meet, things started to change for me. And I want to apply this to your job search because, see, a lot of times what we do is, is we say, "Okay, that guy's got my job. I'm going to get him." And we fail to realize there's a real possibility that, that guy has people who influence him that could help us get there. Make sense? So let's walk through that. Of course it's important for you to identify the right person in the right job that you're looking for. Who has control over that job? You need to identify who that person or those people are. Now, one of the things I'm going to share with you is you might be thinking too small. You might be thinking too small. Let's just use as an example. Let's say that you are— and I didn't hear anybody say a supply chain specialist. If you are, I didn't already meet you. But let's just say that you are a supply chain specialist and you make $110,000 a year in your ideal job, but you want to stay in this area. Okay, you've narrowed your, your search a little bit. But if in fact you were to say, okay, I'm willing to look anywhere, you might find 150, 180, 210 for your expertise. I don't know, because the market determines that, right? And the market says, if you— how difficult is it to find you? How difficult is it to incorporate you? And how difficult How difficult is it to replace you? And so some areas of the country might pay double, and a lot of folks when they're in that job search, their life— they don't want their lives upset. Surprise! Your life was upset recently when you left your job for whatever reason. So you need to identify the ideal identity of the person you're trying to make connection with. Okay? After that, there should be an association list. Who has access to the people or the person that you need to get with? Who has influence? Now, the natural thought is, okay, the gatekeeper or whomever like that, right? But do you realize that all of these people— and every job is controlled by a person— all of these people have a sphere of influence around them. They have people that they make contact with every day that can influence them. Here's really good news for you. If you do go to an interview and it doesn't go your way, I don't know if this is right or wrong, but it's what I would do. Wow, I really hope we could work together. I understand you've made another choice. Let me ask you a question. Would you suggest somebody in your field that I might contact who might be able to use my skills? Always ask for a referral. Even if it doesn't go well, ask for a referral. Just because they may not have not liked you, they may not have been able to use you in the way that you would be used best. So you gotta figure out that association list. Who is around this person? Who has influence over this person? Because when you do that, you're gonna have access to more opportunities to get to the right person and also figure out the association list for this right person to other people who might be a good fit for you. Don't narrow it down to one, although I always say have a target, have the exact target. We want that one. But anyway, this is something that Dave works on a lot. It's a statement of value, and that's what I was taught to call it. But a statement of value is very simple. What is it that you can do that nobody else can do? And every one of us has one. Every one of us has something that we can do that no one else can. Now, the important thing is, is to take that statement of value for yourself and then put it on the need of someone else. Match it up perfectly to where they're together so that when you say your statement of value, it actually sounds like their statement of need. Because when you do that, you're the only option at any price because no one else does it. So you have to identify the ideal target or the ideal identity. You have to identify their association list so you can get to them easier. Because let me tell you, it's a whole lot easier to convince somebody that you're the right person for the job if in fact you go to Bob and say, "Bob, Mary's friend— Bob's friend Mary told me to call you," right? You're coming in with added credibility. And then of course you identify your statement of value and you match it up to their statement of need. It's simple. It's not easy, but it is simple. This process is exactly what I did. I didn't know I was doing it at the time. It wasn't something I said, "Okay, now here's what I'm gonna do." But just like that, that conversation that I had with Kathy, "Who do you need to meet?" I didn't realize that was a defining moment in my life. I didn't realize that was the moment that was gonna change everything. Would lead me to a 10-year career in the Chamber of Commerce industry, that would have me being the president of a chamber, the director of small to mid-sized business in one of the largest chambers in the United States, and the vice president of a chamber that went on to win Chamber of the Year. I had no idea because I've never been in the chamber industry. See, you got to be open to what might happen if you get asked a question you're not ready for. But once I did that, I looked back and what I said was 4 years ago, I said, I am I'm not ready to give up on my financial career. And I'm gonna try something. I'm gonna try what I've learned and I'm gonna put it together and I'm gonna follow a process. And I back and forth, like I said, I didn't know exactly what I was doing, but now that I look back on it, I can honestly tell you that I've literally, from the things I've learned from meeting people at Chamber of Commerce events and other types of events like this, I've made millions of dollars. I haven't kept it. I wish I had, but I'm equally talented at spending it. I'm equally talented at risking it. So, but what I did was, is I went through this, and this is the exact process I went through. If you'll visit my website today, it's glengould.net. Up in the right-hand corner, there's a button that says Million Dollar Meetings. If you'll go there, you'll get the first 5 chapters of the book free. It's a book that's not even out yet. This is a proof copy. My wife and I— my wife and my two sons have the only copies. I borrowed theirs. I didn't even get one for myself. It talks about the things that I've learned. And let me just tell you, I'd love to tell you I'm brilliant. This is all stuff that I learned from other people. This— so this is an opportunity for you to go and learn some stuff that maybe you haven't heard because you didn't meet these people. And I can tell you that they can help you. What I want to really do is emphasize one thing to you, and that is, if you didn't come here today with a plan, that's okay. It really is. Listen, absorb, and try to— try to develop a plan in the hour and a half you're going to be here. But don't leave here today without the knowledge of next time and every time, I'm gonna have a plan. I want to meet somebody. I want to learn something. I want to do something. And then you'll be amazed what you'll also get. Because everything is open to you if you'll just be open to the idea of this is what I want. Imagine what I'll get by looking for what I want. It's a lot easier to hit a target if you're aiming at the center. So I hope that was helpful for you today. I'd love to connect with you, like I said. Go to my website. I won't hound you a bunch. Please don't think I'm going to try to sell you anything right away. Notice I said right away. And if you would, please connect with me if I can be of any service to you. Dave, I just wanted to say one last thing, and that is I had, you know, I knew that it had been a number of years.
Yeah.
I didn't know it was this week. That's really, really cool for me. And Dave was so kind to say how I've done things for this community, come on, if anybody has done anything for this community, it's Dave O'Farrell. He gives and gives and gives, and he is such an expert at what he does. He's got a heart for you guys, and he's got a heart for success for you guys. And I know that it seems like when he cheers somebody after they have success that, you know, you don't know how much it means to him to feel the, the knowledge that somebody came here, somebody actually moved through. And I can tell you that happens because I look around at this crowd, and after 9 years, um, I see new people all the time. Yeah, so that means it must work. So let's give Dave O'Farrell a hand. Thank you very much.
