Out Of Work?

Jessy: Super happy to be here with you guys. If you are new, giant, warm welcome. And if you guys have listened to this even once before, I am so grateful that you came back for more means you didn’t hate us. Yay, I’ll consider that a win.

I’m super happy to be here with you guys. This week’s episode is gonna be a solo episode, and we are talking about the job market. There are so many layoffs happening. There are so much downsizing and I personally know, I would say, dozens of people who are out of work and are incredibly talented at what they do.

So we are officially in a recession. The job market is pretty volatile, and in this week’s episode, I’m gonna be going over what you can do if you are out of work to get your next gig, have it be fruitful, have it be what you want out of your next role. So it’s gotta be exciting and how to make it all happen for yourself. So stick around.

Jessy: All right guys, so as I mentioned in this week’s intro, I personally know dozens of people who are out of work.

People that I would never assume would be out of work. During the pandemic, I was the one telling you guys on this podcast, wow our industry feels pretty freaking pandemic-proof. Sure there are businesses that went out. Sure, there are rules that were, furloughed. But more often than not, our industry was pretty resilient.

However, in the past few months, in particular, I have seen people really feel the hit. So if you are listening to this podcast and you are out of work and you are just, feeling it right? 

Like just know, I guess for whatever it’s worth, you are absolutely not alone. Today’s episode, I’m gonna be pulling from my recruiting experience.

I’m gonna put my recruiter hat on right now and share with you guys some tips on how to get your next role if you are looking and how to make it the best role yet. 

So tip number one, optimize your LinkedIn. So you’ll see that on LinkedIn you can turn on the open to work or open for work, open to work, whichever one it is. Notation on LinkedIn. 

That is really important to do because it’s such a prominent way to have yourself featured to your whole network and have them know that you are available. You are eager and you’re open for work, but that isn’t enough. What I would also recommend doing, sharing updates on LinkedIn. 

I want you guys to get Uber comfortable with LinkedIn and become content creators there. Turn on creator mode you guys, use your branding skills because you are now your own brand and LinkedIn is the biggest tool to help you amplify your message and get in front of the right people.

So here’s a little like hack that I always recommend cuz some people like, I’m on LinkedIn, but like, how do I get in front of the right people? So this is one thing that I do personally, and I think you guys should too. So if you go to our website, I am wiim.com/confrences, you will see a huge list that we’ve compiled of industry conferences in 2023.

The reason that I bring that up is cause each of those conferences has speaker lists that they publicly place on their website pretty prominently. Wow. That was a lot of alliteration. And I want you to take those lists and friends and connect all of those people on LinkedIn, right?

Because your network is really only powerful if it’s the first connection network, right? So on LinkedIn, there’s the first connection, a second, and a third. I guess it’s pretty explanatory what each of them is, but if you’re directly connected with someone one-to-one, you’ve connected to them, and they’ve accepted your request, that makes you guys a first connection. 

So your content is going to be much, much more highly distributed to those people versus second and third connections. 

So go to all those industry conference pages, look at their speaker lists, and have a field day connect to everyone. Sure, there are limits on LinkedIn to how many people you can connect with each day, but it’s a pretty high limit.

So go on your rabbit hole and if you find an interesting company, don’t just, settle for connecting with the person who is a speaker. Let that be, an indicator to connect with other interesting people at their company. Look at people’s titles. Look how many followers they have on LinkedIn.

It’ll show you how active they are. Send a note also when you’re connected. Don’t just hit that connect button, but take that extra step to send a personalized note. And the note should be short. It shouldn’t be long. It shouldn’t be an InMail ideally. There’s like a little button that says add a note.

And I wouldn’t even start with, hey, I’m open for work. I think that’s a little too forward too soon, but what I would recommend is, I’ve read this article this week and you know it was about influencer marketing. I found you through my network and I wanted to share it with you. Hope it could be helpful.

Drop a resource, drop something that can be helpful to them because too often they’re getting, it’s nice to connect with you or, you were in my network, so I figured we’d connect.

That literally does nothing. Be specific. Add value and get personal as well. Share something personal about yourself. Don’t overshare, don’t be that creeper. This weekend I went to the arcade with my daughter. That’s something that I actually did.

It’s nice to be back at it and thought I would connect with someone with such interesting content as yourself. Complimenting people goes a long way y’all. 

You can more specifically connect with influencer marketers because you can, basically notate what your content’s about if you’re in creator mode. So check out LinkedIn. Dive so heavily into LinkedIn. Really lean into it, guys. And if you have any more specific questions, ping me on LinkedIn.

I’m more than happy to be a resource as you go for you guys. I’m part of their creator program and I love it.

The next thing that I want you guys to do is, Reconnect with old connections. So sure, it’s important to broaden your net, to connect with, new people.

But I want you guys to resurface old connections as well. That’s probably the most efficient thing that you can do because starting a brand-new relationship can be tough. But, resurfacing one where there’s something already there, like that’s a little bit easier.

So go through old emails, go through your LinkedIn to see who you’re already connected with. Jog your memory because you might be surprised who just you haven’t spoken to in quite a while. 

So resurface old connections, ask to go to coffee, ask for a Zoom date, whatever it is. But just really speaking to people and putting out there what you want to do and what you wanna be doing will inevitably yield so many results. You gotta speak it into the universe. 

This leads to my next point, which is I want you guys to do some soul-searching. What does that look like in the sense, I want you guys to really dig into what very specific role would be your ideal next step? 

I feel like the longer that you’re out of work \and the more you are feeling the pressure of not having a steady income and you’re just getting worried, you’re filled with anxiety as I get it. The more you start to compromise on things that are really important to you. 

I just remember years ago I had a friend of mine who was up for a really impressive role and she was the very first person. And this is my first experience where I, got to witness this friend of mine who turned down from the outside, seemed like a really impressive role. And I never had experience that you could say no to a role before.

I know that sounds so stupid, but I was young and that was really, truly the first time I had ever witnessed that. And I asked her, I remember being like, you got so far in the process, obviously to the point where they made you an offer. Like what made you turn it down?

And she’s I put a lot of thought into it. It’s certainly not a decision that I came to quickly, but after really weighing my options and really soul-searching, I didn’t think that this was the right role for me. 

And I just feel like that takes so much courage to do and so much self-awareness and I just like really impressed the heck outta me.

Hence the fact that I’m telling you this story probably like 15 years after it happened or so, maybe even more than that.

I just also wanna be real with you guys, right? So like after being unemployed for, months and months on end and getting an offer for what might be a really impressive role, I know that it certainly wouldn’t be the easy choice to turn it down, but I will just implore you guys just to not jump on the next shiny thing simply because it’s available simply because you’re essentially operating out of fear, out of desperation.

I wanna make sure that it’s right for you because I’ll tell you this much you guys I would rather see you guys just freelance or become consultants and have your own business to be able to support yourself in the meantime versus accepting some role that you’re like, half in, half out about.

You’ll get to know the team. I want you to ask a lot of questions, and interview them as much as they’re interviewing you. Keep it respectful, of course, and keep it all on good terms. 

And, at the end of the interview process, A, you should know whether or not you wanna accept this role. And if you’re on the fence about it, there’s a reason, like you should know if you are excited about the role after, two interviews. 

Definitely three interviews. And if you don’t, you’re on the fence, you’re not a hundred percent sure, then I would say it’s not the right role for you. Something about it in your gut is telling you that it is not right.

The next tip that I wanna give you guys for securing your next role is I want you guys to carve out time in your day where you know you’re not networking, you’re not looking for roles, you’re not applying for roles, but you’re taking care of yourself. You’re doing some really, important self-care. 

And so that can mean something different to everybody. For some people it’s, I wanna meditate, I wanna do yoga. 

For me, I like walking my dog, just like getting fresh air. Opening up the windows honestly will make such a big difference. It’s the summer we can open up our pool, and the backyard, like making a point to do things that really just get your mind right.

Because I just fundamentally believe that when your mind is right, the rest will follow. And again I just wanna be real about this. If you are out of work for months and months on end, it’s hard not to fall into these traps of just getting nervous, getting negative, and all those things pile on. I understand. I see it. 

So I think that you have to be mindful of adding guardrails into your life to be able to keep on the right path and to keep your head on straight. 

So with all that being said, I hate toxic positivity. So I am the last person to sit here and preach to you guys about yeah, just do it and be positive. It’ll be fine.

No, like some of you have kids, some of you have pets, some of you have mortgages, some of you have like just, bills to pay. if your identity has been so wrapped up in your career, It’s something that you pride yourself on, then it can be one of the scariest moments of your life, not knowing where your next paycheck is coming from. Seeing your bank account dwindle down, it’s a shock to your ego, all of the above. 

So I will never sit here and say just plow through it and be positive it’s the opposite. I actually think that like we all deserve moments where we could just sit in that shitty place if it feels.

Like you’re going through it’s okay to feel that. I always tell my daughter like, it’s okay to cry. Feel your feelings. I would never tell you not to. However, I do think that for any of us who have experienced depression before, there’s a moment when it starts to go in a different direction. When it starts to feel more extreme, it starts to feel counterproductive for sure.

And so I think that in those instances, it’s really important to know what your guardrails look like, right? What are the things in your life that you can turn on pretty immediately to get you in a more healthy place?

So sometimes it’s going out to eat instead of ordering in. That’s for me, I like the environment is really important to me. Or like calling up your best friend that you haven’t spoken to in too long cuz you’ve been isolating yourself and not really letting them see what’s going on. Put your hand up if you’ve ever done that, I’m raising my hands.

So just having those guardrails in place, like my happy place is having both of my pets on me. I just have my adorable little animals on me, and my cat, my dog. And it just pretty immediately snaps me into a more productive place. So just keeping your head right is a really powerful thing because all you need is one yes. 

When you hear all these nos, you apply, you apply. You either hear nothing or you get rejections, or you get really close to a role that you are excited about and it doesn’t go through. It is so easy to focus on all the negatives, right? Because there are so many of them. And you only need that one. Yes.

And that one yes is what can you know, change the trajectory that you’re on for months, years, decades to come. 

So I just want to encourage you guys to check out our job board. I wanna encourage you guys to sign up for our job fair. That’s in August, and I wanna encourage you guys to lean on the rest of the Wiim community and your own community and your own network of people as much as possible.

Because what I will share as a last thing is when I’m feeling stuck in my business. I work for myself, so I’m not like out of work of course, but when I feel stuck, you’re feeling stuck in your own way if you’re out of work. When I feel stuck in my business every single time that I lean on someone else when I open up my network and say like, who can I like reconnect with? Or how can I build another partnership as soon as I get out of my head and out of the cloudiness of what I’ve been doing and look outward and reconnect with somebody, or build a partnership or lean on someone in my network, my community, every single time?

You know what I always say without fail, why didn’t I do this sooner? I have just seen it time and time again. it opens up so many avenues and I just. I always wish I did it sooner, 

So I wanted to share all of that with you guys today. I do hope that this helps if for nothing else, just to let you guys know that you are not alone.

I have so many people reaching out to me on a regular basis saying Ugh. Are you recruiting for anything? Do you know of any open rules? Could you look at my resume? I can refer you to somebody who can optimize your resume. I can suggest certain people that you can connect with depending on what aspect of influence and marketing you wanna get into.

So reach out. Don’t hesitate to connect with me on LinkedIn is probably the easiest place. Jessy with the Y. Jessy Grossman on there. You can always, DM me on Instagram. I’m Jessy Grossman on Instagram. I am excited for you guys to get that one yes. And I really feel like it’s coming soon.

So keep your head up, and I will see you guys in our next episode. And have a great rest of your week. And don’t forget about our upcoming events because a really great way to, network and get your next gig, than our in-person networking events. All of that will be linked below. Have a wonderful week, you guys. Thank you so much for tuning in, and we’ll see you next week.