In this devotional-style talk, Glen Gould addresses a group of job‑seekers, opening with Proverbs 24:6 to frame the job hunt as a war that requires wise counsel. He tells a personal story about renovating a cramped bathroom, using the demolition, tool‑gathering, and need for a plumber as a metaphor for the job‑search process: preparation, having the right resources, and recognizing when expert help is essential. Gould then challenges common myths about unemployment rates, illustrating that hiring opportunities exist at any level of unemployment if one positions oneself as the solution to an employer’s problem. He emphasizes the importance of networking and expert assistance—citing local contacts like Dave, Travis, and the broader “ship’s crew”—and urges attendees to leverage LinkedIn to connect with him and others. Gould quantifies the financial upside of investing in professional guidance, arguing that saving two weeks of search time or securing higher pay can translate into $5,000‑$10,000 in value, making the cost of expert help worthwhile. The talk concludes with a call to action: seek advice, network, and connect with Glen on LinkedIn for ongoing support.
Hey, we got Glen Gould doing the devo this morning. Does the devotional 4 or 5 times a year for 8 or 9 years. That's about 100 devos, right?
You'd think I don't have anything left to say, but yeah.
One time he did the devotional in gym shorts and a t-shirt, but, uh, that's a story for another day. So I think it's time to give Mr. Glen Gould a warm welcome. Good morning, Glen.
Thank you, David. Yes, sir. Good morning to you. Good morning. Good morning. How are you guys today? Great. As Dave said, I'm Glen Gould. I've spoken here a lot of times. I see a lot of familiar faces, and every time I come, of course, there are some new faces and some faces that are no longer here because it works. So that's good news. How many of you are actively seeking a position right now? Please raise your hand. Okay, great. Don't be afraid to tell people you are, right? I want to talk to you today about what I believe is the one thing. That will make all the difference, the one thing. And it's funny because I look back over my slide decks and things that I've talked about, and I think I've had the one thing 3 times, and it's been a different one every time. But the way that works is, is you end up with things in your life that kind of are important at different times and things like that. If you haven't seen me or been around when I've spoken before, I like to find a Bible verse to try to inspire my thoughts. And this one is Proverbs 24:6. For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory. I like this one because really, if you're looking for a job right now, you are in a war. You know, you're in a war against all sorts of things, but one of the wars you're in is, is with yourself. What I do want to talk about is how to approach that war. I gotta tell you, that is a good-looking bathroom, isn't it? Well, I'd love to have that bathroom. Wouldn't you? About 30 years ago, I was in a situation where I was married to a lady, and we had a bathroom that was really horrific, and we decided we wanted to renovate it. You ever done something like that? I had built with my neighbor a fence, and he, he kind of knew how to build fences, and I built this expense. And then I took on building a very small deck out our front door, and I was successful with that. And so got a little bit of encouragement. I thought, okay, I can take this project on. I mean, how hard could it be to renovate a bathroom? Back then we didn't have Google, right? But I did go and I, I bought all— I mean, have you ever said— you probably haven't seen them. You ever seen those Time Life series There was one about renovating kitchens and baths, and I remember having that one. And if I had been doing this today, I would have gone to Google and I would have looked up all the steps and I would have found what I needed to do. So I got started. What's the first thing you do when you're gonna renovate a bathroom? After you've looked everything up, you start taking stuff out. You start tearing it apart. And I gotta tell you, I got so busy. If you've never demolished something on purpose, it's so much fun to do a bathroom. I mean, that, that 50-year-old vanity, the way it went, I pounded it with a hammer until it just was pulverized. And I didn't care because I'd already turned off the water and I'm ripping out things and all of that. And I got busy. And after I got busy, I had to start thinking about how I was going to lay things out once I got in there. And the first thing is tile. Well, good news was, is I, I've been around some tile in my life. I, I could, I could handle this part. I thought tile floor wouldn't be that hard, but you have to pick the right tile, right? And you have to pick all the— what it's going to look like and all of those things. And we did those things. And you got to have tools. And I got to tell you, I had a tool set like you wouldn't believe. I had everything. I had every tool we owned in this little tiny bathroom. Shit. Everything. So I did the right thing. I had a desired outcome. I sought expert advice. I had some previous experience and I had all the tools necessary. I'm laying in the floor. I'm not sitting anymore. I'm laying in the floor. Looking up at the ceiling. I have demolition everywhere around me. I have tools. I have tools I don't even know what they do. You ever seen that, that machine that pulls up old linoleum and tile? It's like a jackhammer at an angle. I mean, I had one of those. I had them all. I'm laying there on the floor. My wife comes in and says, honey, do you need anything? How could I need anything? Nothing would fit. Yeah, yeah, honey, I've determined that I do have one tool missing. I need a plumber. I don't know what I'm doing. I need a plumber. Water is about to go everywhere the moment I turn it back on because I don't know what I haven't connected. There's more to this story. I'm going to tell you the funniest thing of all is this was one of those like 3-foot-wide and 12-foot-long bathrooms, right? You walk in, it's like a hallway where they decided to install a bathroom. And in our wisdom— her wisdom— we had mirror on both sides of the wall the entire length. Now I just want you to imagine for a second when you sit down to do some reading in the bathroom and you look up and there you are, there you are, there you are, there you are, there you are, there you are, into infinity because you got a mirror behind you, mirror in front of you. It is the creepiest feeling in the world. I gotta tell you, it's not good. It was the freakiest experience of my life, but I never thought of that until We had those things installed. Now, maybe the mirror company should have said, hey, you sure you want to do this? We kind of been here before. You're gonna feel really weird when you're doing some reading in the bathroom. I tell that story because it's a story that is going to apply to you in a very real way right now. As Dave alluded, I've been speaking here 8 or 9 years, and in that time we have seen unemployment at 10%. And we have seen unemployment at 4.1%, which I think is what it is today. And in that time, I see the room full of people, and I see the room very few people. I saw very few people when it was 10% unemployment, and I saw very few people when it was 4% unemployment. It's kind of like that story. You ever heard the story about the shoe salesman in the outback of Australia? This company decides there's a big opportunity in Australia because they don't sell shoes there yet. They send a shoe salesman out out to the outback of Australia, shipped a whole container load of shoes. 2 weeks later, he gets somehow back to civilization, calls the company, says, "Pick up me, pick up the shoes. We got a problem. Nobody wears shoes in the outback of Australia. They're all Aborigines." So they picked him up, they sent a different salesman out there just to make sure, right? They left the shoes there. And in about 2 weeks, he got back to civilization. He calls the company, he says, Oh my goodness, send me more shoes. Nobody wears shoes in the outback of Australia. It just depends on what you're looking for, right? With 10% unemployment, I remember everyone saying, well, nobody's hiring. That's why there's 10% unemployment. And at 4% unemployment, I hear, well, nobody's hiring because everybody's got a job now, right? So they're not even bothering to try to find people. No matter what you do, there's people hiring if you have the answer to a problem they have. Don't ever forget that. That's the real job you have, is to position yourself as the answer to a problem an employer has. I'm going to encourage you to do something. See, if you go back to my bathroom example, I had everything I needed except for a plumber, right? See, a plumber knows exactly how to do it. He could sit there, or she could sit there with me side by side and show me how to do it. Had I put in a sink before? Yeah, Had I replaced a washer here and there?
Sure.
That doesn't mean that I knew what I was doing. And in your job search right now, you may have looked for a job before, but that doesn't mean you really know what you're doing. Don't do this alone. You've taken the first step. You've come here. That's excellent. You've kind of sought out information. The truth is, even if you've done something before, you need expert assistance. Not just advice, if you want to be victorious. What I mean by that is that you have resources, whether it's here, whether you use Dave and Travis, or whether you seek out somebody else to help you find that position you're looking for right now. You don't want to just ask for advice and then try to do it yourself. You can try that, but here, here's the question. I don't want you to raise your hand, but I would be willing to get the guess that everybody in here is looking for a position that pays at least $500 a week. If somebody could save you 2 weeks in the job search, that's $1,000. Not to mention if they can help you get a better rate of pay because they know how to position you right, that may be another $1,000. Not to mention the lack of productivity you're going to have the first couple of weeks on the job because you're trying to learn a position. It's something that fit them, not you. I mean, this could be a proposition of literally $5,000 to $10,000. What would you be willing to pay to save $5,000 to $10,000? I have the math for you. $4,999 to $9,999. If you can make a profit, you ought to do it. And so I'm telling you, I beg you, if you're here, you're looking for a position, get some advice. Please do that. Get it today. Learn from the people around you. Network with people. Somebody here knows the person that you need to know to get your job, but get some expert assistance too, whether it's with Dave or Travis or one of the, one of the ship's crew here or somebody else. Get some expert assistance in your search because I can tell you it will make financial success so much easier. I would love to connect with you. I do know a lot of people. I'm pretty well connected in the Southern Crescent on LinkedIn. I'm @Glenn Gould. I'm a LinkedIn for in for Glen Gould. Pretty much everywhere, if I'm not Glen Gould, I'm Speaker Glen Gould somewhere. I would love to help you if there's some way I can. Please connect with me on LinkedIn, that'll probably be the best because you are searching for a position and LinkedIn is a great resource for that. And with that, Dave, thank you all for listening. Have a great morning, everyone.
