Welcome to the "Experience Rich" podcast Ep 001

Key Takeaways:

• Personal Experience: I share my own experience of career transition and the emotional rollercoaster associated with it.
  
  
• LinkedIn Focus: This podcast will focus on LinkedIn strategies to help job seekers, particularly those over the age of 40+, 50+, and 60+. By the way, I turned 50 in September. 
  
  
• Experience-Rich Mindset: I encourage listeners to embrace their experience as a valuable asset, rather than a liability.
  
  
• Positive Positioning: The importance of positive self-presentation and avoiding negative labels like "mature worker."
  
  
• Community Support: I emphasize the power of community and offer support to job seekers.
  
  
• Goal-Oriented Approach: My goal is to help listeners find jobs and ultimately stop needing this podcast's advice.
  
  

Resources mentioned:

Friday VIP Job Seeker Office Hours
I'd like to invite you to join me on an upcoming Friday VIP job seekers office hours zoom session. It's the first Friday every month.

https://www.mellermarketing.com/FridayVIP (it's free!). Feel free to spread the word to others who are in career transition, at any job title level and in any industry.

You can watch the playback of our latest call, along with previous calls, on this YouTube playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4um17Ji5FVRyGTUrge3XRPJ8H1r06ac7

Book a LinkedIn "Power Hour" with Brenda Meller
https://www.mellermarketing.com/powerhour 

Transcript

 Welcome to the podcast. I want to give you a little bit of a backstory about the name and how this podcast came to be.  I come from a corporate marketing background and I've always believed that there's different ways that we can share information and communicate information to put things in the best light for the company.

I'm not talking about lying. I'm just talking about let's focus on the strengths and maybe downplay or not talk about some of the things that are, that are challenges or could be seen as a potential weakness. Yes. And over the years, I've been in career transition myself. I've been in the place that many are you are right now.

Maybe you've been let go, laid off, downsize, any of those fancy corporate words that they use, which basically say that you're no longer working for the company. One day you were a member of their team and the next day you're not. And, you know, there's a lot of things that happens. You're going through a rollercoaster of emotions.

It's similar to almost the different stages of grief that you go through when you leave someone. And, you know, one day you might find yourself, uh, happy that you're released from a situation that maybe was stressful for a long time. And other days you might be just angry about the situation. And other days you're sad about the situation.

So I know it's a whole whirlwind of emotions that you go through. And for many of us, we love our jobs. And our jobs are really tied to our identity. And when we don't have that job anymore, who are we? Right? And you might find yourself in a situation where you're now having to start to do this whole networking job search thing.

You didn't want to be job searching. You wanted to be working in your job, right? But now you're having to find yourself, get out there and you need to be positive, right? You need to be ready to go in these interviews, showing that you're ready to hit the ground running and eager to get in your next job.

But inside. You're really just torn up over what you've been working through, all these emotions and things. Right.  And, you know, this podcast, I call this experience rich LinkedIn job search tips for a few reasons. Uh, first let me start with a LinkedIn job search tips. If you're following me online, you know, that my area of specialty is LinkedIn.

I come from a corporate marketing background, so I'm always approaching. What I do on LinkedIn and the teachings from a marketing perspective, meaning I'm going to think about who is your ideal target audience? Who are you looking to connect with? In your case, it's a hiring manager, a recruiter, or perhaps somebody who can refer you into those positions, right?

And also from a marketing perspective, I'm always thinking about what are the goals with what you're trying to achieve. In this case, you're trying to find a job, right? So I wanted to make sure that LinkedIn job search tips was a part. of my podcast title because I want to be easily found, but I also want to distinguish myself.

And if you follow me online, if you've ever been in any one of my webinars, or maybe by Friday VIP office hours for job seekers, you'll hear me using the term experience rich. I don't like to say mature candidates or older workers. I'm trying to put you in the best light possible. And I'm really trying to focus on what you can do.

what you have to offer.  And when we use the term experience rich, we're focusing on the fact that you've gained so many experiences throughout your career, and you're ready to offer them to your next employer, right? I want you to imagine this right now. I like to use analogies. So bear with me on this one.

I want you to imagine right now that we're sitting across from each other and I hold out a bowl of something to you and I say, can you smell this milk? Does it smell sour?  Now let's say, Same scenario, but now I hold the bowl out to you and I say, smell this Greek yogurt. Doesn't it smell amazing?  Now, in the first scenario, when you're leaning in, your nose is probably already a little bit wrinkled because you're anticipating that acidic sour smell from, from milk that has gone bad, right?

In the second scenario, you might be looking for hints of vanilla or cinnamon or different, you know, just fresh dairy scents that are coming to your nose because you're anticipating the smell of yogurt. right?  Now, my friend, in both scenarios, we're basically, we're talking about rotten milk.  It's just the way that we position it.

And I know that yogurt is a different substance than milk, but if I'm holding the bowl out to you with a white substance in it, by positioning it in a way that's either favorable or unfavorable, you're going to anticipate and start to receive that information. In the same way. So if you're using the term mature worker, you know, um, older candidate, things like that, stop using those terms.

And if you've never used the term experience rich, I want you to start using it when you're identifying yourself as a candidate.  And I like to think of someone who is experience rich, if we're putting a line in the sand, I'm going to say you're age 40 plus, 50 plus, 60 plus. And I always like to use, Those three timeframes, because I think anyone who's like under 40, you're not really facing the same  concerns with your job search and perceptions within the marketplace than you are when you reach the age of 40.

And I just recently turned 50 myself, so I'm right in the middle of this timeframe. And I have many friends and clients and members of my community that I've helped over the years that are in the age range of 40, 50, 60. There was actually a guy a few years back that was aged. 80, I think it was 83 and he found a job.

He was in career transition, you know, getting a job. So I work with people well beyond the age of 60 who are looking to stay in the workforce as well.  But I do believe in you. And I know that you might not be happy that you're listening to this podcast because it means that you're not working right now and you need some tips with using LinkedIn, but I'm glad that you found me.

And I want to let you know that I will be sharing with you some really great LinkedIn tips to help you to expand your visibility, to shine the spotlight on all the wonderful things  that you offer to your next employer, and also to help you to understand the algorithm and the rules at play and even the psychology of how people are using LinkedIn.

So again, I am delighted that you found me. I know you might not be happy that you're here, but I want to let you know that you're not alone in on the process. There's a lot of great people in my community who are supporting job seekers, just like you. And, uh, we're going to do our best to help to get you back to work as soon as possible.

My goal is that you stop listening to this podcast because you're back to work. All right. So let's envision that someday, but in the meantime, I want to encourage you to tune in. I'll probably do an episode a week. There might be some weeks where I do two episodes, but I'll probably be doing an episode a week, and this will be a limited series podcast.

Initially, if it starts to take off and there's interest and we're continuing to get viewers, I might keep this going on an ongoing basis. So with that said, I'd love to hear from you. You can feel free to message me on LinkedIn. Let me know you're listening to the podcast. Or alternatively, you can send me an email to Brenda at  MellerMarketing.

com. Thank you for listening. Have a good day. And I look forward to seeing you on LinkedIn.