In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Lantei Takona, a professional who assists first‑time job seekers and career‑transitioning candidates, as well as talent‑acquisition teams. Takona shares a personal story about securing his first internship at Abbott Laboratories by repeatedly seeking feedback and demonstrating growth over three years, illustrating the power of mentorship and persistence. He highlights the 2019 job market context, noting a record‑low unemployment rate of 3.9% and explaining why active job seekers are in a favorable position. Takona differentiates strategic thinking from tactical execution, urging entrepreneurs to define a clear long‑term vision before focusing on day‑to‑day tasks. He offers personal advice to “double down” on one’s strengths, emphasizes learning from failure, and reflects on happiness as a conscious choice, citing the poem Invictus. He discusses the key lesson from Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog—knowing your desired outcome before entering negotiations—and shares his favorite Napoleon Hill quote about belief and achievement. The episode concludes with a call to connect with Takona on LinkedIn.
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All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Lante Ticona with us, and he works with job seekers who are either looking to find their first job out of school or are interested in transitioning career industries to get hired. I also partner with talent acquisition professionals to help them find top quality job candidates faster. So welcome to the show, man.
Thanks, appreciate it, Tyler. It's good to be here.
Of course. Grateful to have you on. So the first question we ask on the show is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
One of the best stories I think that kind of like stuck with me, and I think back to Austin, is actually getting my first internship in college. When I was, I went to the University of Michigan for engineering, and it's not necessarily the easiest major to undertake, and when it comes time to get an internship, you know, typically you go to career fairs, you hand out your resume, and you get judged based on your GPA and your experience. Now, if you're not a top, you know, 4.0 type of student, I wasn't, it's a lot harder to get an internship. And so what I would do is my freshman year, I went to the career fair. I wanted to be a consultant at the time, but I knew that my resume wasn't good enough for a consulting firm. So I would take my resume to a specific company called Abbott Laboratories. There's a really nice lady, and I would ask her, you know, can you review my resume and tell me what I need to do so that I can go over here and get a consulting job? So I I would take my resume, my freshman year I took it there, she looked at it, she was like, you know what, you can work on your grades, you can work on some experience, do this and that. My sophomore year, I took it back to her, I said, hey look, I did all the things you did, what else should I do? She gave me some more information, things to do. My junior year, I went back to her again, and my junior year, now it's the third year in a row I've done this, and she's seen me take the advice and all the feedback that she's been giving me, she told me, you know what, just apply to this company, my company. I've been watching you for the past 3 years and I've seen your growth and you've done exactly what I told you to do. So, I actually ended up getting the internship off of that and when I reflect back on that, you know, 2020, hindsight is 20/20, a lot of that came from unintentionally or naively, you know, taking feedback, listening to advice, applying that advice and then demonstrating growth to somebody. So, being transparent and being intentional about those sorts of things can take you a long way. For me at the time, I wasn't doing it intentionally, but the underlying message there is that when you do take the feedback and advice and then demonstrate back to that person that you're growing, good things can come from that.
And then what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
All right, so like as you mentioned, I do work with job seekers looking for their first opportunities and also with talent acquisition professionals, recruiters, HR functions. To help them identify top-quality candidates. So specific to my industry of expertise, I read an article just at the turn of the year here in 2019 that confirmed that the unemployment rate right now is at an all-time low, which is 3.9%, record low. And what this means is that companies and industries, as they continue to grow and their roles and teams are expanding, they're having a hard time finding active job seekers. Because over 95% of the population is employed. So people are looking for jobs, it's really hard to come by. Now with that being said, um, what that means is that if you are an active job seeker or you're interested in making a career move, right now is definitely the time to start that search process because the talent acquisition market is in your favor.
And then what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
Okay, so I would say that understanding, for me, understanding the difference between strategic versus tactical thinking. Strategic versus tactical thinking. Most people are great tactical thinkers. You know, we make to-do lists or we know what we need to accomplish, specific tangible tasks each day, and we're good and we can do that, we can follow that. But strategic thinking is where most of us lack practice. And that's where things can get a little bit vague. Like when somebody asks you, you know, where do you see yourself in 3 years, right? Even that sound of that question is like cringe, right? It's daunting. We avoid thinking about that because it's hard. It's much easier to stay busy and focus on the day-to-day tasks, you know, tactical. So being a strategic thinker, I think it's very important to face those fears, you know, these vague, intangible ideas if you want to be successful when it comes to planning in growing your business because what most entrepreneurs or business people do is they set sail on this great business idea, this great voyage they're going to take, but they end up building the boat as they sail in it, right? We have to be able to establish the bigger picture, the end goal. That way, when we do go to these tactical tasks, these day-to-days, we know exactly what we should be doing to move the needle forward.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I'd say focus on what you're good at and double down on it. I find that I have more energy and enthusiasm when I'm working on projects or businesses that I'm genuinely interested in. Things seem to feel less like a chore and more of a pleasure. And so when you find the things that get you fired up and you're excited about, double down on those things, put effort into them, Give yourself a few times to fail. Nothing's ever perfect the first time, but you learn so much more when you fail at something and try again versus if you fail and then you hop to the next idea, to that next shiny new toy. Mm-hmm.
And so kind of going a little bit down a different path with this next one. In your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
I think the key to happiness, I'd probably say, is understanding that Happiness is a choice, right? So William Ernest Henley wrote a poem in 1875 called Invictus, and the poem ends with a quote that actually you may be familiar with. He says, "I am the captain of my fate. I'm the master of my soul." And that resonates with me because I know myself better than anyone else, and I know what makes me happy, and I know what upsets me. And I believe that the key to happiness is doing things that make you happy that will make you happy and will keep you happy along life's journey.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Best book, well, I'll say, okay, I did read Shoe Dog a while ago by Phil Knight, the founder of Nike. Great book. And yeah, so essentially, you know, it's an autobiography of how he grew up, how he came to start Nike and so forth. But in the book, there was a point where he was getting into negotiations with companies that were going to start manufacturing Nike shoes for him. And he said something along the lines of the number one rule when negotiating is knowing what will make you whole before you start. And so essentially already having a solid decision or a solid number in mind before you begin wheeling and dealing is the message there. And I think that logic can be applied to almost every decision-making process as an entrepreneur. You need to know what your endgame is before you start burning rubber.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
Favorite quote is from Napoleon Hill, sort of a super old-school philosopher. You watch YouTube videos, they're like in black and white. But he says, "What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve." So philosophically, there's 3 things that you can do in order to accomplish a goal. The first one is that you need to conceive your goal, right? Come up with it. The second is that you have to believe that you can accomplish that goal. And then the last one is to start making way to achieving it. So coming up with a goal and working on it, immediately having an idea and starting to work on it is the typical workflow that many of us, you know, sort of like embark on. But a lot of us aren't necessarily confident or truly believe in ourselves. And so I think that quote speaks to me from that perspective.
Thank you so much for coming on, man. The last one I got for you is where can our audience best find you online?
Best way to connect with me would definitely be on LinkedIn. You can connect with me at Lante Takona. That's L-A-N-T-E-I, last name is T-A-K-O-N-A. And I'd love to keep an open dialogue going. I'm happy to answer any more questions that you or anyone listening may have. Definitely reach out. Perfect.
Thanks again for coming on, man.
Awesome. Thanks for having me.
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