From 8 Months Unemployed to Senior PM Dream Job + Big Pay Raise | Lynne Levy Coaching Review

Hey, before I joined the program, I was in kind of a tough spot. I was looking for a job for about 8 months, a good long time, and it was painful. And I was worried because I have a wife and I have children and I have expenses, and I was really worried. And I kept applying to jobs and I wasn't finding anything. So I decided I needed some help. I needed to, you know, bounce ideas off of someone else. And that really is what introduced me to Lynne's program. Before looking for a job, I was a product manager but wasn't seeing a whole lot of growth. And I was kind of stuck and felt like I didn't know how to proceed and how to move forward. So I was feeling really stressed out. And, and honestly, as I was looking for work, I was really considering jobs that did not pay very well just to get a job again and just to move forward, to try to move forward in my product management career. But I wasn't very confident with my ability to do that. And again, just happy I found Lynne to help me, guide me from that step on. There were a lot of aha moments through Lynne's program. Honestly, one of the biggest was I was able just to ask Lynne, what do you think that I'm worth? Look at my resume, look at where I've been. What do you think that I should be asking for? And that was incredibly, incredibly valuable to me. Um, obviously when you're working for someone, especially for a long time, it's it's easy to fall into that category of being viewed as an expense, right? You're a liability, like paying for electricity or something. I didn't want that anymore. I wanted someone to pay me more and pay me what I was worth and who could see that I could bring way more value if you paid me more money. And so talking to an employer or something like that doesn't— won't always get you there, right? And so being able to talk to a total third party, right? Lynne Levy Levy Levy, asking her about What do you think that I'm worth? Huge lightbulb moment. And what was really cool was the number she gave me was much higher than the number that I had in my own head. So that was a really big shift for me and really allowed me to get a job that paid much more than I was thinking it could originally. The other really big aha moment I had was that I was in a position where in my past, I began my career as a school teacher. I was a 7th grade math teacher. And in the years since converting from education into the tech space, I had seen, I had started to see that as a negative thing. I felt like people were putting me into a bucket, that I was a teacher, that I wasn't a tech person. And so that was a part of my life that I tried to hide. Because I kind of was a little bit ashamed of it, honestly. And I thought that that would be an anchor for me and would hold me back from what I could do in the future. And what I realized, as you know, talking through with Lynne and her team, is that no, no, like that, that is not an anchor, but instead it is a huge value add. And instead of trying to shy away from that idea, I really leaned into it. And that made all the difference. The, I believe the number one reason why I have the job that I have today, which I love by the way, is because I leaned into that because they were looking for someone exactly like me that had a background in education and it was not shameful at all. It's actually an incredibly valuable thing that I get to apply every single day that I go to work today. And I love that. And it was just a wonderful thing to have that aha moment and really have my eyes open that, hey, Don't be ashamed of that anymore. That's really cool, what you, what you used to do. Yeah, going into the program, I was nervous, right? I was nervous that I wouldn't find the right person. I figured that I needed help, that it would be valuable to find someone who thinks about product the way that I do, but is thinking about, you know, helping lots and lots of people. find jobs and up-level their jobs in product. And so, um, I knew that was a given. I should talk to someone because I was stuck, but trying to figure out who, uh, became a little scary, right? Uh, whenever you're talking about a program like this, uh, you know, there's real dollars on the line. Um, but what I realized is if I could make, uh, more money than I paid because of the program, then it would be a total no-brainer for me. And so that was one of the things that helped me overcome that fear was realizing, oh, I bet that I can ask for even more than that in a salary bump conversation as a new job because I've had this sort of experience. And so that was helpful to me as well. The other thing I think that I was scared of is I don't really like, uh, kind of group sort of, uh, support, uh, just like a full just video library sort of a thing where it's like there's not one-on-one interaction sometimes. Right. Um, and so I was a little bit nervous about that, but again, luckily, uh, Lynne's program, uh, is pretty individual and there are group activities, which I found to be really helpful. Um, and there are also other meetings that are kind of one-on-one. There's not too many of those, but there were, I think, enough that it was valuable. Uh, and then also everyone is very accessible via Slack if there are these kinds of questions that come up along the way. Um, so those were kind of my big things. I didn't want to spend too much money. I didn't want to go with the wrong person and I didn't want to just basically spend a lot of money and just sit in front of a video library, uh, because that's not particularly effective. And I knew that it wasn't going to move the needle for me. Um, and luckily Lynne's program is It's not like that. Today I'm a senior product manager, uh, over a product that I absolutely love. I am tapped every single day to do strategy work and try to figure out what should we build and why should we build it and looking at the market influence and and all of that, work very closely with high-level management to try to figure out where do we go from here. And I absolutely love it in every way. I am so fortunate. I feel like what I do today is a complete dream job, uh, and is exactly what I was looking for, uh, 100%. I love it and I am so grateful to be here. I think more than anything, the program helped me figure out what I really wanted. Going into it, I thought I knew what I wanted, but I really didn't. And it was quite fascinating to do all the little exercises that the program has to really identify what is it that I wanted specifically. And, you know, what things do I not want? I knew, again, some things, and I felt like I had a pretty good idea, but as going through those exercises, it becomes clear pretty fast that it's rare for a person to kind of think meta enough to really kind of nail all of those things. And so by really pinpointing exactly what I wanted and pinpointing who I am as a person, my own strengths, my own weaknesses, I was able to align in a way that has really just made me stand out incredibly from the competition, other people applying for similar jobs, and now other people at my company, right? Because I'm not just playing the part of some random PM, but I am a very specific type of product manager and product leader that I can see going very, very far. In lots of different places. And it has already been noticed by lots of people at my current company where I shine, and I'm just able to lean into that, which means what I do becomes even more enjoyable. It makes people notice me more, and it just has really exploded kind of the— my potential and where I can go, right? And And I think like the program itself is not necessarily magical, but what it did do was it really made me identify what that point B is and what my point A is, and then figure out how do I get there, right? And how can I actively do things to move in that way? And what are kind of your non-negotiables that are kind of distracting from getting to the the point B. And it was incredibly, incredibly valuable. And I imagine that what I've learned and what this program has done for me will impact the rest of my career. It really has put me on a really great trajectory because it caused me to think about things that I would not have thought about on my own. And for that, I'm very, very grateful. This is a great question. I can honestly say right now, um, I have no stress or burnout. I love what I'm doing, uh, so much so that I recently went on vacation and I like wanted to work while I was on vacation, which is a mind-blowing thing because I have never ever in my life felt like I even wanted to think about work for a second while I was gone. But what is amazing is once you find that perfect role, at least for me, I found that I just love it. It's like doing something fun because it is fun. And as I did that, it becomes much more sustainable and the stress and all of that sort of thing is just kind of like I don't know, playing a sport, right? Like when you're having lots of fun and you know there's hard things, you push through the hard things, but you just are doing it because you're having fun. And I feel like I get to experience that every day now. And I'm just really excited about that and I feel great. And yeah, I feel a little weird, but my stress level is pretty much zero and I have no burnout right now. And life's pretty good. My favorite parts of the program were when it really got specific. So at the beginning, I really loved how specifically they helped us try to figure out who we are and what we want. I think that is incredibly valuable because it helps you be one of a kind as opposed to just you know, run into a sea of product managers. You're a very unique individual, and picking out what is different about you and different about where you want to go is important. The other thing that I really loved was the specificity around LinkedIn and resumes. I think there is a whole game there that is very complicated, knowing how to optimize for those things. So having that support there to make sure that that is as awesome as it can be, and to see tons and tons of examples of people who are winning there, losing there, kind of somewhere in the middle, was, was invaluable. Because again, most of us don't think about how to optimize for this thing, but it is so optimizable when you have people that know what they're doing. So I loved that. I love the hyper-specificity specificity around, you know, what should be included, what terms should be used, or, you know, what information to include where. I think very invaluable information. Similarly with the resumes, I mean, they also gave resume templates that I took a template, made it my own, and it just was significantly better than it was before, which I just absolutely loved. And then we also did some interview prep as well, which was incredibly valuable, right? So all of those like hard things at the end there— LinkedIn, resume, interview skills— like all those hard skills were very, very valuable and a huge, huge thing for me. Definitely those were my favorite parts. I would say if you're thinking about joining the program, remember that no one can solve your problems for you. What the program is, is a guidance to help you get from where you are to where you want to go, but it will require a lot of work from you to make that happen. So if you go into this program thinking that they can solve all your problems, they can give you a magical template, they can give you all the answers for interviews, whatnot, then this is not going to work for you. It's just, this is not a passive experience. In order to find success in this program and obviously anywhere in life, it requires a ton of effort, which means that while you're going to these classes that are part of the course, while you're doing the coursework that's part of the course, There is also a ton of other things that you should be doing to understand better who you are, what you actually want, and what you actually don't want. There will be a ton of iterations. There will be a ton of stuff going on. When I went through the program, I also was looking at other materials from other people all at the same time, trying to figure out how do I move forward and how do I get to where I'm going. So my biggest piece of advice would have to be just be willing to put in a lot of work because it is the effort that makes you stand out. And other people will be able to see the effort, and effort is universally respected. So you put in the effort, you'll get the outcome. And Lynne Levy in this program helps guide you. It gives you a lot of tools so that way when you put in the effort, you go further than you could otherwise, and you're putting in effort in the right areas, right? Because you also don't want to put in effort in the wrong things because you're wasting time. So Lynne's group helps you put effort in the right thing so you, you know, work hard but you get to where you're going because they help direct you and then you pump in the gas and that's how you get to where you need to go.