Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Jonathan Javier: Networking Hacks to Land a Job in the Pandemic | Career | E83
Episode Date: October 5, 2020Learn how to make a lasting impression on recruiters and new connections from Jonathan Javier! Today, Hala is yapping with Jonathan Javier, CEO and Founder of Wonsulting. Jonathan has previously worke...d at tech giants like Google, Snapchat, and Cisco before starting Wonsulting. The mission behind Wonsulting is to help students from non-target schools land dream jobs at major companies through resume workshops, speaker series, and more. In today’s episode, we’ll talk about Jonathan’s start in the tech world and how COVID prompted him to work on Wonsulting full time. We’ll also dig deep into advice for current job seekers, tips to nail your next interview, and how to grow a meaningful network. Social Follow YAP on IG: www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting Reach out to Hala directly at Hala@YoungandProfiting.com Follow Hala on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Follow Hala on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yapwithhala Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com Timestamps 00:59 - How the Idea of Wonsulting was Created 02:43 - Are Companies Missing Out by Only Targeting Ivy-Leagues? 05:29 - Starting a Side Hustle with a Full Time Job 07:24 - When Jonathan Realized He Had to Leave his Full Time 08:33 - Challenges Jonathan Has Faced 11:05 - How Recruitment Has Changed with the Pandemic 16:24 - Jonathan’s Advice for Those Who Lost Their Job 18:44 - Advice for Minorities to Stand Out When Applying for Jobs 21:25 - Current Advantages for Job Seekers 24:15 - Learnings from Rejection 26:22 - Jonathan’s Experience with Imposter Syndrome 29:51 - Best Tips on Interviewing 31:40 - How Jonathan Prepped for Interviews 35:17 - Jonathan’s Personal Networking Story 40:21 - Strategies to Grow Your Network 43:35 - What to Do vs. What Not to Do When Networking 45:25 - How to Share Wins Without Bragging 48:28 - Jonathan’s Intro to Speaking Engagements 53:41 - Ways Jonathan Improved His Speaking 55:01 - Why Jonathan’s Biggest Post Went Viral 56:36 - Jonathan’s Secret to Profiting in Life Links Wonsulting Website: https://www.wonsulting.com/ Jonathan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanmjavier/ Jonathan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanwordsofwisdom/ Jonathan’s Website: https://jonathanwordsofwisdom.com/ Wonsulting Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonsulting/
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Welcome to the show.
I'm your host, Halitaha, and on Young and Profiting Podcast, we investigate a new topic each week.
and interview some of the brightest minds in the world.
My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life,
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hit the subscribe button because you'll love it here at Young and Profiting Podcast.
Today on the show, we're chatting with Jonathan Javier.
Jonathan is currently the CEO and founder of Juan Salting,
an agency that helps students from non-target schools and non-traditional backgrounds
get into their dream careers.
John's mission is to turn underdogs into winners.
Prior to going full time as an entrepreneur, Jonathan worked at major tech companies like
Snapchat, Google, and Cisco.
Jonathan has led over 150-plus workshops on topics like LinkedIn and personal branding,
and he's also a very sought-after corporate speaker with talks at Google, LinkedIn HQ,
Lyft, and more.
In this episode, we'll uncover John's top hacks for finding a job in the pandemic,
and we'll get Jonathan's practical and useful tips for networking both offline and online.
Hey, Jonathan, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast.
How's it going? How's it going?
I'm very excited to have you on the show. You are a very impressive guy.
You're currently the CEO founder of Juan Salting, and your mission is to turn underdogs into winners.
Previously to that, you were at major tech companies like Snapchat, Google, and Cisco.
And with the Wandsaulting Initiative, you've led over 100 workshops around the world.
You've hit the stage for almost 100 speaking engagements, if not more.
You also have a huge LinkedIn presence, and I really want to deep dive into all of your different recruitment strategies for job seekers.
But before that, I want to know a little bit more about your career journey.
I feel that everything really started for you in terms of your personal brand and your presence on LinkedIn and all these opportunities with your speaking and workshops.
since you started Juan Sulting.
So tell us a story about how you thought of starting Wandsulting.
Like, how did the idea come about?
And tell us more about that business in general.
Of course.
First off, thank you so much for having me on this podcast.
I really do appreciate it.
And I really appreciate you did your research.
So that's amazing.
I've actually done now over 150 workshops.
It's been crazy in the past six months.
So I know people are probably wondering,
does this guy have a life?
Yes, I do.
I swear I do.
But going back
real quick, when I was in college,
which was about three, four years ago,
I still remember I wanted to work at the big
tech companies, like the
Googles, the Goldman Sachs, and the Deloites,
and the Facebooks of the world.
But what I thought was that the system
told me that I could never make it into those
companies because of my background,
whether it was coming from a non-target school or just
a non-traditional one.
So I actually just utilize LinkedIn
to get into all my jobs, which I'll talk about
later on today too as well,
at Snapchat, Google, and Cisco.
And I started consulting when I was at Google
because I saw that a lot of people were from the big-named top schools around the world.
And I was from a much smaller school,
a school that didn't get directly recruited from.
And I realized that I wanted to bridge that gap
between the non-target schools and non-traditional background individuals of the world
into those top tech companies.
So, yeah, now we've helped thousands of people get into their careers,
especially during these times during the pandemic.
And yeah, our mission is to turn underdogs into winners.
Everybody has their own underdog story, and that's why a lot of people relate to it.
I know you have your own underdog story as well, and probably a lot of people do,
especially on listening to this podcast.
Yeah, totally.
So tell us a little bit more about some of these big companies,
and are they missing out when it comes to talent by not looking at non-target schools like
Harvard and other, like, you know, really prestigious Ivy League schools?
Yeah, I mean, I think so because, well, it does make sense for companies to recruit from
target schools because they usually get their qualified candidates from there.
And from the non-target schools, they're great talent.
It's just that there's sometimes it's a percentage that's super high up there.
But that's super high percentage are the ones that be, are extremely successful in these
companies because of that underdog mentality.
I think that's very important because when they get into the.
companies, they didn't just get it from getting it handed to by their parents or something like
that, right? They worked hard to get to where they wanted to be and that work translates into
their actual work at the company. So I feel like that is extremely important, especially with
those underdog stories and people who come from non-target schools to be successful. And that's
what I've seen, especially like when I was working at Snap, I had some friends who came from
target schools, but then other ones from non-target schools and the ones from the non-target schools. And the ones from the
non-target schools were the ones who were actually the most successful and worked the hardest
to make sure that everything was good and up to par. Yeah, I can totally, totally relate to that.
I went to the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and it's not an Ivy League school. I got my
undergrad and my master's there, and I still got a job at Hewlett Packard and Disney Streaming
Services, even though I wasn't a target, like a candidate from a target school. But like you said,
It's like you work harder, you're more resourceful, you value your job a little bit more,
you probably take more initiative. And it's all about like getting your foot in the door.
And then usually people who have the motivation, no matter what school they went to, can rise up
the ranks, like once they actually get in the company. So we'll definitely talk about like how we can
do that once we get our foot in the door and your tips on how to get our foot in the door.
And I was going to say to as well, like the difference between target schools and non-target schools
is sometimes just simply opportunities. The thing is with non-target schools. The thing is with non-target schools,
private schools, you have to make those opportunities happen for you, like you did for yourself at
HP and Disney. Same for me at Snapchat, Google, and Cisco. So that might just be the difference
between the two. Yeah. So as I was reading your story, I realized, like, we have a lot of similarities.
So we're both like big on LinkedIn, considered LinkedIn, quote unquote, influencers, even though I
hate that word. We both worked corporate. You left your corporate job. Both worked at top tech companies.
Also, both started a side hustle, you know, that's generating.
a lot of noise and business. Tell us about starting your side hustle at your corporate job.
What was that like having a side hustle when you, I think you started it when you were at
Cisco. How did that feel? Were people jealous of you? Like, were they accepting of it?
And how did you manage your time? Yeah. So I started, Wansultzing, actually when I was at Google,
January 2019, yeah, at first, honestly, people were kind of questioning it in the beginning,
mainly because I had a really bad logo
because I just made the logo from scratch out of nothing.
But yeah, I basically just decided to do it
because there were so many people
that would always ask for my help.
So I was like, do I want to do this based off myself?
I do want to base this off a business.
And so when I created the business,
I still remember I was like,
hey, I'll do free resume revisions
for anybody who comments that they want a resume revision.
And like hundreds of people commented.
So I was like, oh, crap.
Like now I've got to actually do this.
But yeah,
basically with Juan Solting and all those different things, it's just been awesome because, yeah,
I still remember I was doing a bunch of workshops every single week. I had a workshop every single
week. And I was like still at Google and I would actually drive to universities and organizations.
And I do them for free because I wanted to scale out the branding and get them kind of as my followers.
And I guess it's just grown ever since, which has been amazing.
I just to see both our growth, especially in our careers, but then also with that side hustle.
But yeah, I mean, it's been good. And the reason why I left Google to go to Cisco was because I balanced it very much better at Cisco.
Kind of translated some of the Wantsulting things into Cisco when I did workshops there too as well.
Very cool. Very cool. And so what are the biggest lessons that you've learned so far now that you've gone full time, you left your corporate job?
Well, actually, let me back check. At what point were you like, I have to leave my corporate job?
And if I want WanSelting to be successful, I need to actually do that.
this full-time. What was that like? Yeah. So my goal was to work in three companies in startup,
software, and hardware before leaving to go full-time. And so what happened was I actually got
affected by Cisco COVID-19 layoffs in February. But what happened was they kept me on the team.
And I think one of the main factors was that I literally made LinkedIn content. That's what I
personally think. But yeah, I was there until July, basically. And then I was like,
okay, I might as well just lead to do one-sulting full-time because I already planned to leave in July-ish
to only be there like a year and then do my business full-time. But yeah, it's been a blessing.
I've been doing it now, I think a month and a half now so far. And it's been great. We've been
partnering with a lot of companies and organizations just to help a lot of students and just the
impact that you're able to make, whether it's on one person or a million people. That's what's
important to me. And I know it's important to you and so many other people. Yeah. So,
Once you took on this full-time position at your job, were there any, like, challenges that you've faced since then?
Or has it just been, like, smooth sailing since you took the plunge?
Yeah. So I think one of the challenges was just balancing everything.
And for me personally, like, I want to do everything, right?
And you probably feel the same way, too.
Like, you want to do the marketing.
You want to do the program, manage.
You want to do the partnerships.
That's what I felt too as well.
But then I realized that if you do all those things, you're just going to be super overwhelmed.
So what I did was I brought on one of my best friends, Jerry Lee, he's our C-O-O now, so we've been scaling it out together.
And we also brought on more to the team.
I think we have a bunch of a lot of intern, I think 10 interns slash employees now, which has been great.
But yeah, I mean, I just had to bring on a team because I realized at the end of the day that you can't do everything.
You either do everything or you're going to burn out or you teach other people how to do it.
It's like you're giving the, you either give the fish to someone or you teach the person how to fish.
And so that's why I taught the people how to fish. And that's why our, now it's kind of smooth sailing for now.
But then we're trying to figure out in regards to more initiatives and more things that we can do to impact our communities.
Yeah. So something that my listeners don't really know, unless they've been listening really closely,
is that I actually just started a podcast marketing agency like two months ago. And I can totally really, I scaled my team.
I have like almost 27 people on my team right now. And the first two weeks was like so stressful.
it was like all these processes. I had to like dump everything in my brain on everyone and like just kind of handhold.
I felt like I had to review every single little thing. But once people actually know what they're doing, like you were just saying, like giving them a framework to work from, it's a lot less stressful.
And it's just like kind of like letting it run by itself. Like that's the best business you can make is if like you actually don't have to be in it all the time. It's impossible. And you'll never scale that way.
Facts. Facts. All facts right there.
Yeah. Cool, cool. So let's get into the meat of our interview. You are an expert when it comes to landing a job, right? And so right now we are in a pandemic. The job market sucks, if I could just be blunt. Before the pandemic, the unemployment rate was at an all-time low. Now, since August, it was like 15% of workers are jobless right now. So in your opinion, how is the pandemic really shaped the recruitment space? And what challenges do the unemployed have?
have right now in particular?
Yeah, so I think that the unemployment rate is extremely high,
but there are jobs out there.
People have to go search for them.
But the thing is, what I think what people are doing is they're reaching out to the wrong
companies.
Meaning, for example, there are so many companies that are, for example,
not doing well, especially during the pandemic, that, like, for example, let's just
say retail.
Like, retail is probably not doing that good.
I wouldn't reach out to anybody specifically people in retail if there's not hiring
for any companies.
or then they're not hiring for any employees.
So you first have to identify who are the biggest movers right now.
For example, let's say Zoom is doing extremely well.
Shopify, Tesla, right?
All these different companies, identify them first
and then go see on their jobs page exactly what they're specifically recruiting for.
And then what you do is you network with the people in those companies.
So you honestly, you literally just search a position you're interested in.
Program manager, Tesla, go find them, find a common ground.
with them, which could be in regards to your school, university, even your background,
even your name. I'm serious, Hala. Like, I used to do this when I was in college. I would
network with people. I'd reach out to the people who had the same name as me. Jonathan,
I'd search Jonathan, Google, and I network with all the people that named Jonathan at Google.
Because it's that common ground aspect of it. That's so funny. He can't do that with a name like
Hala. Right. But I mean, no, like if you have a unique name, what I say to is just reach out to
we'd be like, hey, I saw you have a unique name and you work at Google. It'll be great to connect.
I guarantee no one will do that, but you'll get a good connection. That's smart.
That's what I do every single time. So that's what I'd recommend.
Yeah. Let's dig deep on the common ground thing. Why is establishing common ground so important?
And what other tips do you have in terms of establishing common ground? And not only for
LinkedIn, but how about offline as well? Yeah. So I think common ground is extremely important because
it gets you more comfortable. And then you don't just talk about work. You talk about things outside of work.
So for example, Hala and I have the same kind of background and story, right?
But another thing we do have in common as well is, of course, we're both human.
So everybody has common ground technically.
But another thing is we have the same mic, right?
That's why actually before this podcast, I asked Hala, what kind of mic you have?
Because I realize that she most likely had a YETI mic.
But you see that common ground aspect between the both of us now, now that we have those three things in common, right?
And we've only been talking for like five minutes.
See? So that's important because it breaks the ice. I think that's extremely important to do.
Another piece of the common ground specifically on LinkedIn is, of course, the same mutual connections.
But the thing is, what I say all the time is you can network so easily by doing something simply just like this.
So for example, let's say I make a post, right? Let's just say I talk about a LinkedIn strategy specifically on how to get into Facebook.
what happens is most of the people that like and comment on my things are people from Facebook
or people in tech. So what you do is you go comment on it or you go like it and then you go look
at the likes and comments and then you go find people who work at the companies you're interested in
and guess what? Now we have the common ground because you both commented on my post and now you
can reach out to the person saying, hey, I saw that you commented on Jonathan's post. I did too.
Be great to connect. That's a common ground.
piece strategy for LinkedIn.
Another one, two as well for in-person, for in-person.
So I'll give you two for in-person because I gave a lot of LinkedIn strategies right
there.
One for virtual.
So I have these posters behind me, right?
They each have a motivational quote on it.
So it's the one says greatness, one says change, once it's goal.
The reason why I have these posters in the back is not because I want them.
It's because every time I speak with someone, it breaks the ice because they always ask
about the posters.
About 75% of people will ask about it.
And I'll be like, oh, yeah, which one is your favorite?
They'll tell me which one is their favorite.
And then I'll tell them which one is my favorite.
But then I'll tailor it towards the company that they're working at.
So then it breaks the ice and we talk about posters for five minutes.
That's one part specifically for virtual interviewing or virtual conversations that you can do.
In person, what I say all the time, research them before.
Everybody, you can find people before events, not after them.
Add them before the event.
Because what happens is everybody will add them after the event.
You have to think in ways where you're like, okay, what am I going to do that nobody else is doing?
So what I'd say is we talk to them.
Right.
Exactly.
How to stand out.
So we chat with them before the event.
Then when you connect with them, you go meet them at the event or virtually or in person,
then after you send a follow up.
Because then most people are going to be in the personalized invites or whatever.
You're going to be the one person who is.
And that's when you build that rapport before.
So those are the two things I'd recommend.
Hopefully that's helpful.
Yeah, super helpful.
And I'd love to get into more networking tips later on.
But I really want to stick on people who don't have jobs right now,
especially those who have been impacted by COVID-19.
So how about the people who have lost their job or who have been furloughed?
Should they, like, be quiet about it?
Is it something they should be embarrassed about?
What do you suggest that they do in order to help them secure their next job?
post about it on LinkedIn 100%.
But the thing is, don't just say hi, I'm open to work.
Please connect with me.
You should have an ask and a call to action for each of your post.
So if I were someone who got foreloaded or laid off,
I literally have the structure of the first part being,
I unfortunately got laid off or affected by COVID-19 layoffs.
The second part would be in regards to a story of yourself or of you at the company.
And the third part would be in regards to what you're looking forward to getting into next.
I think that's very important because then your whole community will then be like,
oh, let me go help this person.
Another part that's important to as well, in the post, you tag people who helped you
in your career, but strategic in a way where they work at the companies you are specifically
interested in.
So for example, honestly, everybody listening in right now, after listening to this podcast,
I want you to tag me and Hala and tag the podcast to as well, post about a LinkedIn.
in your takeaways, right?
Or you can post about, you know,
maybe you got affected by layoffs as well.
What happens is this.
Tal and I have over 100,000 followers easily combined.
All of our followers are going to see it.
And then guess what?
Maybe one of those 100,000 followers
will be a person who works at a company you are interested in.
And then guess what?
We're tying in that common ground.
The common ground is that they viewed your profile.
You go reach out to them and say,
hey, I saw you view my profile. It'd be great to connect. That's how you do it. That's why I recommend
people to make those posts because you never know if it will go viral or blow up, but then people
will go to you and be like, oh, what are you interested in getting into? And that's when you have
your informational interviews and phone chats. Yeah, I completely agree. And I think that people who have
been affected by COVID-19, people have sympathy for you. You know, people want to do good and want to help people.
And so if they see your post, they're going to be more inclined to help than compared to somebody who randomly lost their job or it wasn't because of the pandemic.
So the next question I have is really about minority employees and specific strategies that they can take.
I know that over the past 10 years, the unemployment rate among black workers has often been double.
So from the start, even before the pandemic, the black community had it worse when it came to finding a job recruitment for many different factors.
So what's your advice to them on standing out and securing a job?
Yes, of course.
So I work with a lot of underrepresented communities, whether Hispanic, African-American, etc.
What I'd recommend to them, especially for working at big companies, identify employee resource groups.
This is why you identify employee resource groups.
Is this exactly what I did to network with people at Google?
So what I did was I'd identify what the ERG, which is what they're called, at the different companies.
I'd identify which one that I identify with,
whether it's in regards to, for example,
being Hispanic, being African-American,
being a woman in tech.
I'd identify those.
What I'd do is I'd go look on their company websites
and look for the people who are on the page.
So what I did was when I was at Google,
I'd go to Asian Googler network.
I'd go look at the people who are on the page.
I go find everybody who's Asian,
and then I go reach out to them.
Same with Black Googler Network and Ola,
which is the Hispanic one.
If you're African-American,
go look at it, go look at Black Googler network,
you will find all the people who are in that ERG.
And your common ground is that you're both the same ethnicity and race,
which means that you can be able to help one another, right?
Because I would feel more inclined to, of course,
help other people who come from my similar background.
So that's what I'd recommend for people if they're trying to network.
That is extremely important because that diversity inclusion aspect
and that community part is extremely important to a lot of people,
especially during these times.
Like for Wonsolting, we're trying to empower as many,
many people as we can. And we love helping everybody, to be honest, and we're going to continue doing
it, of course. Yeah. I mean, that is absolutely amazing advice. And we have that in common as well.
I know you were involved in your employee resource group. At HP, I was like president of the
young employee network and on the global board and all this stuff. And so it was so impactful for
my career. And people who are in ERGs and are in leadership position NRGs are some of the most
influential people within the company. They've got a lot of pull because they're the ones that
know the top executives because they're doing presentations, even if they're not a high-level
employee. They're the ones doing presentations with the CEO and the CMO and asking for budget
and things like that. And so they have a lot of pull. So that's a great, great point. I love that.
So on the flip side, the pandemic has a lot of disadvantages for the workforce. You know,
there's less jobs. But like you said, there are jobs available. Are there any other advantages that you can
think of when it comes to job seekers right now in the pandemic. Yeah, LinkedIn stories. They just
released LinkedIn stories, right? And the reason why I'm saying LinkedIn stories is because if you
are a job seeker right now, you should be utilizing LinkedIn stories as best as you can to number one,
market yourself and number two, network. Right. So what I would be doing if I was a job seeker and I was
affected by COVID-19 layoffs, or I'm just looking for a job, is I'd put on my story exactly what I'm
looking for, I post about it on my story. What's happening right now is everybody is looking at
LinkedIn stories. Like everybody because they're like, oh my gosh, this is new. It's the same thing
about what happened with TikTok, right? Everyone's on TikTok because it is new. Same thing what happened
LinkedIn stories. Everyone's looking at their stories, et cetera. I personally don't look at LinkedIn
stories that often because I just get super busy, but a lot of other people are looking at them.
Why you do this is you post it, you wait 23 hours right before it ends. You go look at the viewers,
and now you go to see exactly who viewed it.
Imagine one of those people work at the companies you're interested in.
Go reach out to them.
Be like, hey, you know, I saw that you viewed my story in regards to what I'm trying to get into in my career.
What did you think?
Now you can start a conversation between the two of you and you could possibly get into your dream career just from that.
So I'd recommend that strategy specifically for LinkedIn stories.
Another thing as well, like if you see another person who's been affected by COVID-19,
layoffs and their post is going viral or if their post is getting a lot of engagement,
go look at the comments.
There's probably recruiters there too as well who are trying to help this other person.
They could probably help you too.
So those are two different things that I'd recommend for people to do.
That's smart.
So smart.
You've got such creative strategies.
And that's because you're resourceful.
It all goes back to resourcefulness.
And it all goes back to creativity.
You don't need to pay.
It can just be creative strategies to get what you want.
Let's switch gears and talk about rejection.
A lot of job seekers, they get rejected over and over again,
whether they feel like nobody's reading their resume,
or they don't get the interview, or they get the interview, and they get rejected.
And it can really hurt your confidence and hurt your ability to kind of get back up on the horse.
Through my research, I found out that you actually got rejected quite a lot.
You interviewed for Golden Sacks twice, and you didn't get the offer.
Your dream job was to work at LinkedIn, but even though you made it to final rounds,
you didn't get the offer. You got into Snapchat, but you were outsourced after six months.
You got into Google after your third try, but you exhibited imposter syndrome and left. And you got
into Cisco, but got affected by COVID-19, like you mentioned previously. So based on your resume,
people might think, oh, my gosh, he just had every job in the world and he got everything that he
wanted. But it took a lot of strikeouts for you to get there. So talk to us about that and talk to us
about how, like your formula for handling rejection. Yeah, what I see all the time,
And I know a lot of people say this now, it's rejection is redire.
But what I'm going to add another layer to is rejection is redirection if you react to it in the right way.
The reason being is this, especially it's all about mindset.
Because when you get rejected, are you going to be doing the same thing over and over again,
which is applying to roles and get the same result?
We're going to do something different that nobody else's do.
So that's why I say this because I still remember I was applying to hundreds of roles.
I get rejected from a lot of them because of, you know, my school wasn't a target school,
and I didn't have a lot of good experience or applicable experience.
So then I realized that you have to do something different than what you're doing if you keep
getting rejected.
So what I actually did was, and I recommend this to anybody, is I create a project in class
that was tailored towards Snapchat, basically printed it out, went to my interview,
and I put it into a yellow folder because Snapchat was yellow, went to the interview,
did really want the case study, killed it.
The two hiring managers were like,
how the heck did you know our whole entire system?
I pulled out the yellow folder with my project in it and my resume,
and I gave it to them.
And I was like, oh, yeah, I did your whole project in class
utilizing geolocation technology.
It literally hired me 30 minutes later.
That's basically how I got the job at Snap
and how I didn't get rejected anymore.
But the reason why I share this is not to flex or anything.
It's to show people that you have to think outside the box,
especially when you're networking or going into these interviews.
Because you have to think there's probably a lot of other people going for it,
but how are you different?
Everyone might have the same experience, but do you have the same work ethic?
Do you have the same projects?
Probably not.
That's how you stand out and that's how you turn those rejections into redirections
and ultimately get into your dream career.
Yeah, I think that's really great advice.
I mentioned just a moment ago how you had imposter syndrome
when you first got to Google and you left after six months.
So tell us what happened.
What did you feel when you got there?
And how did you make the decision to leave and not just stick it out?
What happened there?
This is a great question.
I love talking about this because it's something that people don't talk about,
especially when working at these companies.
Because you've probably seen a lot of people always like,
hey, I want to work at Google.
I want to work at Facebook.
I want to work at business, all these companies, right?
But the thing is they don't know the exact culture
or how people feel when working at these companies.
is they could have the best experience, they could have the worst.
My experience was good, was good for the most part.
But with imposter syndrome, the reason why I talk about this all the time is because in all
transparency, a lot of people would only talk to me because I worked at Google.
So when I was trying to, and I don't have this experience with you as well because you
work at Disney, but a lot of people would all just be like, hey, tell me more about
how you got into Google.
The crazy part was, is that it wasn't just on LinkedIn.
It was in person.
It was when I was at happy hours.
It was when I was with family and friends.
It literally just be like, hey, how's Google?
This ultimately, why this affected me was because it increased my ego.
I'm just being super transparent.
It increased my ego.
I was like, man, like, I'm the Google guy who got in from UC Riverside.
But the thing is, like, a company, right?
But the thing is, a company should not define a person.
The person is defined by their character.
And that's what I realized for myself, I was like, do I want to be known for the guy who works at Google?
Or the guy who started his own company and helped other people get there.
And that's the reason why I actually left because of that aspect to empower other people to get into those
companies. And if they want to work with those companies, perfect. That's my dream for you. Right. But the thing is,
do not conform to society norms in which they say, hey, go work at these top companies because we say so.
Work at these companies because of the values and truly because you want to work there. So that's what I would say
in regards to people who want to work at these companies. And that's why I actually left to go to Cisco
because then I can balance the two.
At Yap, we have a super unique company culture.
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Happy New Year, Yap, gang.
I just love the unique energy of the new year.
It's all about fresh starts.
And fresh starts not only feel possible, but also feel encouraged.
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Head over to podcorn.com to learn more. Yeah, oh my gosh, I couldn't relate everything that you say
and like so many of your experiences, I could just relate to you so much with Disney streaming
services. I find the same thing. Everybody's always asking me, how did you get into Disney streaming
services? And if my listeners notice, I don't talk about being at Disney like too much. In fact,
when I was at HP, I was a lot more like vocal about working at HP.
and like kind of their face of the young employees.
And at Disney, I've kind of taken a backside
because I agree with you.
You can't have a corporation
if it's not your own, be your identity.
Because then if something happens,
you lose your identity.
If you get fired or if something happens,
all of a sudden you lose your identity.
So it's more important to build your personal brand
or your own thing that's yours.
I was going to say, hollow two as well.
I was going to say, to be real,
I didn't even know you worked at Disney six months ago.
I just knew you from your podcast.
And that just shows exactly,
For example, I'm hyper yubbholy because you should be hyped up.
But just knowing you from your podcast and not knowing you because of Disney, but because of your
podcast, that is exactly what I wanted to do specifically for Wantsolting.
So that's, if anybody ever wants to start their own business, definitely do that.
And what I say all the time is be an entrepreneur because then you can just leave your
corporate job and then go to working at your own and you learn the processes from those
corporate companies because they've been successful already.
Totally. I totally agree.
Like we mentioned previously, you went to a lot of interviews that didn't necessarily pan out.
A lot of failed interviews, a lot of great interviews.
So what did you learn from some of these experiences?
And how can people get better at interviewing?
In these interviews that I failed at, I talked too much.
Why I say this is because I literally would babble.
And this is what I recommend to people.
If you don't know the answer to a question, do not just wing it and just go into it.
tell the interviewer like, hey, could you give me 30 seconds to write my answers down so I can give you a structured format?
It's very important to do this because a lot of people don't think you can do this, but you can't.
But don't do it every question it. Just do it for some questions you truly don't know the answer to.
So when I did this, I'd structure my questions and answers into star format.
And that's when I got a structure of how to specifically convey my experiences.
So, yeah, I remember when I was at Golden Sachs, I was talking so much that I got a structure.
I was like, okay, we're good now. Right? So you literally...
What's a star format?
Star format, yeah, situation, task, action, result. It's very important to do. So for example,
I'll just give an example. Like, let's just say, tell me about a time you worked on a team
project and someone wasn't pulling their own weight. So the situation would be, let's just say
Google. A time that I was doing this was at Google. My task was, so your task is what were you
going to do to ultimately help that person pull their own weight? The action steps are the action
stuff you took to get that person to do X, Y, Z. And the results is what happened due to you doing all
this, all these. That star format is extremely important because your answer is then in one minute,
30 seconds, two minute, 30 seconds, which is kind of the sweet spot. So I'd recommend doing that
format for anybody who's doing interviews and it's behavioral ones.
I think that's good advice. Another piece of advice, I was like, you know, stalking your LinkedIn
or reading all your posts. You go and you find people who have similar roles.
at the company that you're applying for.
And I think you actually called up, like, customer service or something one time to find
out more information about a role or something. Tell us about that story.
That's right. Oh, my gosh. This is a great story. So when I was interviewing at Google,
I was interviewing for like a sales operations role. So it was for ads. So I was like, okay,
because I was like, okay, I'm going to go to the interview.
Like, maybe I'll do good. Maybe I'll do bad. But I was like, why don't I just go call them?
Because they gave me the questions. They gave me some of the questions to prepare for.
So I was like, why don't I just take these questions and go ask the person who's in my role currently right now how they would react?
So what I did was I called Google ads.
I found it on Google, of course.
I called them.
I pretended I was a customer.
So I pretended I had my own business.
One consulting was not started yet.
Had my own business.
Just pretended.
I was like, yeah, it's just Jonathan Services.
Pretended.
And then what I did was I pretended I was a disgruntled customer.
I was like, man, I don't want to, I don't want to work with you anymore.
They were like, oh, why not?
blah, blah, blah. And so I saw the reaction to the person. And what I did was I took my phone,
I put it on my desk, and I recorded the whole thing so I could go back to it and see how they
react to every single part. And so when I had my questions in my interview, I literally
replicated the exact way that they did it on the phone. So that's how I did it, basically.
And that's how I got passed by actually first rounds of interviews at Google.
Wow, that's amazing. See, it's really like, again, creativity.
resourcefulness. It costs no money. I have a pretty similar story for Disney streaming services. I am,
you know, in email marketing and mobile messaging. I've always been a marketer, but I've never done email.
And obviously Disney streaming is only going to hire like best of the best. And I remember that I
studied email, took courses on email marketing, read every article that I could. One of their
assignments was like some spreadsheet workbook on analytics that we had to do. And I actually like
hired someone to help me learn because I like didn't, I never had done a pivot table before that
that time because I wasn't really in analytics. I used to do dashboards and stuff, but like I never
really worked in Excel and like they were really Excel heavy. And I just learned how to do it.
And I crushed it, you know, and it's like you can figure it out along the way. You don't have to
be an expert, you know. You just have to be willing to learn and put in the work and get up to speed
very quickly. Like once you know what it's about and what the role is about, if you get the
interview, just try your best to study and get up to speed as quick as you can. That's the best
advice I can give. I was going to say to as well, I did something very similar with Excel.
What I did was because Google on their responsibilities that said, advanced at Excel. So I was
like, okay, so what I did was I bought a class on Groupon for five bucks, took the class,
just learned all of Excel. And then when they asked me, do you have Excel experience? I was like,
yeah, I took a class.
Yeah. And then you like know the words. It's all about knowing the lingo. That's the
other thing. It's like knowing the words that the industry uses so that you can sound like,
you know what you're talking about. And then you can figure out everything else later.
Exactly, exactly. We're on the same page. Let's talk about networking again. You've got amazing
tips for networking and, you know, networking and pruning your network, making sure that you
keep in touch. You actually have a very touching story about one of your first managers at
Coles. His name was Alfonso. Tell us about your relationship with Alfonso. Tell us about your
relationship with Alfonso and how what you learned from him and how you tended that
relationship. Of course. You know, it's so crazy all that. I posted this on TikTok yesterday. It's going
viral right now. It has over 500,000 views right now. I didn't even know you were on TikTok.
I literally just started last week and it's been blowing up like crazy. So yeah, so Alfonso,
he's a great guy. He was, so yeah, four years ago when I was interning a store management
slash operations intern at Coles.
I was stationed at his store, which is in Coles Cerritos.
And yeah, I still remember my first day.
This one, I knew nothing about first impressions.
My first day, I still remember, I went to the gym before,
and then I went into the Coles,
and I was just wearing a T-shirt.
And I had my dress clothes,
but I was going to go change in the fitting room.
I don't know what I was thinking.
I was like, what the head?
So the thing was, like, when I was in a, yeah,
when I was in college,
I really couldn't afford, like, new clothes,
like new professional clothes for example.
example because I was also helping pay tuition, helping paying rent, et cetera. So what I did was I borrowed
my dad's clothes and they're super big. Like they're not they're not fit like you know how people have it
all tailored and stuff not fit at all. So yeah, I still remember going for two weeks, my first two weeks,
I was wearing those clothes and Alfonso actually noticed this. So he what he did was in one of our
one-on-ones took me to the fitting room and he's like, hey, Jonathan, look at look in the mirror.
And I was like, okay. So I looked in the mirror and he's like, tell me, what do you think of,
What do you think of this impression when a customer sees you?
And then I was like, oh, I don't think it's a good one.
I mean, it looks kind of baggy.
And he's like, why is that?
And then I told them transparency and I was like, yeah, honestly, I can't afford,
I can't afford new clothes because I've just been paying for everything else.
So what he did was he actually gave me this huge discount,
which was like the biggest discount that Coles can give,
which was almost like 70, I believe it was 70, 75% off everything.
And so what I did was is the first time I ever bought clothes from coals and everything.
I still have it.
It's so funny, Hala, I still use the same clothes to this day.
It's been three years, four years.
I haven't bought any new dress clothes.
I still use it to this day.
I bought a suit, long sleeve, pans, everything.
I literally bought all of my coals.
I'm a very minimalist guy.
People always wonder, why, what the heck?
Do you ever wear anything else besides one salting?
To be honest, I probably don't.
Very minimalist in regards to clothing.
But yeah, that's the thing.
he taught me were number one, first impressions are extremely important. That's why I tell you,
like, all the strategies are all about first impressions because that sets the precedent for everything.
Number two, he taught me about, you know, balancing work and hard work really does pay off at the
end of the day. And then last but not least, grit. I still remember that rule had a lot of
things in regards to grit because I didn't know everything exactly. But the thing was, I kept going
and tried to keep learning. Oh, and then another thing is, well, relationships are extremely important.
I've stayed in touch with Alfonso every year,
except I skipped one year because I moved to the day.
So he was wondering, and it was crazy.
A quick story, he was actually a stold store manager.
My sister was interviewing there.
I didn't even know she was interviewing.
She called me.
She's like, yeah, I interviewed for the Cerritos location.
I was like, I intern there.
So what happened was he found out and he actually hired her on the spot, which is crazy.
So I'm telling you relationships are so important.
you never know what's going to happen in the future, but always keep those strong and always stay up to date with everybody.
I love that. I think that's so sweet that you kept in touch with him. I read that like every use,
always bring him like a holiday card and cookies or something every year. That's so nice. And he seems like such a nice guy to have like hooked you up when you needed it.
Exactly. Yeah. So I interviewed Jordan Harbinger. He's one of the biggest podcasters in the world. And he taught me something really awesome. He always talks about Dig the Well,
before you're thirsty. And what he means by that is start your connections before you need them,
not afterwards, not after you lose your job. You want to establish those connections before you need them.
He also says that your network is your best insurance policy. In his case, he actually was on this
very popular podcast. It was called The Art of Charm. It was a multimillion dollar training business as well.
And he got kicked out. And all of a sudden, his friends kicked him out. And he was like the main person
of the show, but somehow they kicked him out. I don't know the logistics behind it. And he was left
with nothing. So he lost his business. He lost his podcast. And all of a sudden, he had to start
all over again. He quickly realized he wanted to start the Jordan Harbinger show. And so he used
his network to become a big podcast again. He put out a message soliciting all his contacts to help him
launch this new show. And then within two months, it was like the biggest podcast. And it's like way
surpassed Art of Charm, his previous podcast. And it was like the number one podcast on Apple 2018. So
it just goes to show like how important your network is. Can you talk to us about your opinion in terms
of pruning your network before you actually need them and maybe some strategies around that?
I love that. I love that a lot because I listen to Art of Charm and I know who that is. I was like,
wait, oh my gosh, I listened to it all the time. Yeah. So when I was especially driving to corporate.
So shout out to him. But yeah, strategy that I would say is yes, I totally agree with that.
Because what happens is this, especially in a job search. A position opens,
Let's just say Google APM program, which is the associate product manager role, it opens,
and then you start networking, right?
That's what most people will do.
When the position opens, then you start networking.
You have to do it before because everybody else is going to do that.
What's going to happen is this.
Would you rather have a process where it's, number one, you've networked with someone and their
position isn't open yet.
You go on a call at them.
You build rapport.
And then when the position opens, you can literally go ask for a referral.
Or would you rather, for example, literally the position opens, you get on the call at
you build rapport and then you have to ask for referral later on and the position closes.
That's why it's important to build that relationship before because what I say all the time
is the best time to look for a job is when you have a job and is when you're not even looking.
All right.
So that's why it's important to maintain those relationships because you never know when you might need someone or might need help.
That's why, like, how last week I actually sent 500 messages to everybody that I've stayed in contact
with for the past.
I've been doing this for five years and stay in contact with the same people.
I literally send them an update every quarter about what I'm up to.
And people wonder why I do that.
It's because it's that relationship building.
And they've all been on my speaker series.
Literally, they all work at the big companies because I was wondering,
how do you get all these companies?
It's literally because of that.
Relationships are important.
They matter.
And hopefully they matter to everybody listening in.
I think that is such a key point right there.
It's reaching out to your context so that they don't actually become.
dead relationships when you need somebody and you, let's say you lost your job.
If you reach out to like an old manager from 10 years ago you never kept in touch with,
they're going to be like, I kind of remember you.
Like, I know you were good, but who knows what you've done in the past 10 years?
Why are you reaching out to me?
You haven't really checked up on me in 10 years.
And you're not going to get anywhere.
That's why it's so important to write a list of every influential person that you want
to keep in contact with and have some sort of cadence for you to reach out to them.
That's what all, like, the master networkers really do.
And Jordan Harbinger has something similar, too.
Something that, in case you guys haven't listened to that episode,
he talks about something called Connect 4.
And what Jordan does is every day he goes into, like, his text messages or WhatsApp,
and he scrolls down, scrolls down,
and he just starts a conversation with, like, the last four people
that he hasn't talked to in a long time.
Just anybody who's in his text or a group text or whatever it is.
And that works for him.
It helps them kind of, like, keep everybody kind of fresh.
up to date. So you guys might want to try that as well. I love that. That's smart.
Yeah. I mean, you've got amazing strategies and advice. So thank you. How about once we've
made a connection with someone? Somebody accepted our LinkedIn request. We used some of those
common ground tactics that you were talking about before. What's some of the mistakes that they
make off the bat? Like, what do you do once you get that connection? And what shouldn't you do?
So a mistake that people make is they don't follow up. They think that you send a personalized invite
and then they'll respond.
Most people actually won't respond because they're super busy or they just click,
connect, connect, connect, connect, or accept.
All right.
So you have to follow up and you have to follow up like within the day, I think.
It's very important.
Just follow up saying, hey, you know, thanks for adding me on LinkedIn.
I appreciate it.
And then go into your little pitch or your little story.
That's very important because, yeah, a lot of people like they said before don't follow up.
Another part two as well is it's okay if people do not respond.
I see this all the time.
I think what happens nowadays is that people dwell on the individuals that don't respond
versus the ones who do.
Reach out to 100 people.
If 99 don't respond, who cares?
If one person does, that's what matters.
Are you going to focus on the 99 people who don't respond or the one person who does?
That one person could make the difference in the world, especially in your career.
So that's what it all takes.
It's that mindset piece, like I said before.
You might get rejected from 99 companies, but you might get one offer.
That's what matters. It doesn't matter about the 99.
Same thing with messaging.
You might say 99 message might only get one response.
And if a person does not respond, you move on.
It's that simple.
Don't dwell on it.
Dwell on the future instead.
What's up, Yap Gang?
If you're a serious entrepreneur like me, you know your website is one of the first
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When people are searching on Google,
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Hello, Yap gang.
I know my young improfiting listeners want bigger businesses and a better life.
And the new year is the perfect moment to reset and commit to your growth.
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Young and Profiters.
I know there's so many people tuning in right now that end their workday wondering why certain
tasks take forever, why they're procrastinating certain things, why they don't feel confident
in their work, why they feel drained and frustrated and unfulfilled.
But here's the thing you need to know.
It's not a character flaw that you're feeling this way.
It's actually your natural wiring.
And here's the thing.
When it comes to burnout, it's really about the type of work that you're doing.
you're doing. Some work gives you energy and some work simply drains you. So it's key to understand
your six types of working genius. The working genius assessment or the six types of working genius
framework was created by Patrick Lensioni and he is a business influencer and author. And the working
genius framework helps you identify what you're actually built for and the work that you're not.
Now, let me tell you a story. Before I uncovered my working genius, which is galvanizing and invention,
so I like to rally people and I like to invent new things.
I used to be really shameful and had a lot of guilt around the fact that I didn't like
enablement, which is one of my working frustrations.
So I actually don't like to support people one-on-one.
I don't like it when people slow me down.
I don't like handholding.
I like to move fast, invent, rally people, inspire.
But what I do need to do is ensure that somebody else can fill the enablement role,
which I do have, K on my team.
So working genius helps you uncover these genius gaps, helps you work better with your team,
helps you reduce friction, helps you collaborate better, understand why people are the way that they are.
It's helped me restructure my team, put people in the spots that they're going to really excel.
And it's also helped me in hiring.
Working Genius is absolutely amazing.
I'm obsessed with this model.
So if you guys want to take the Working Genius assessment and get 20% off, you can use code profiting.
Go to workinggenius.com.
Again, that's working genius.com.
Stop guessing.
Start working in your genius.
I love that.
Great strategies.
Let's move on to personal branding because I think that's something else that you're really an expert on.
I saw that recently you posted that you were nominated for the Forbes 30 under 30.
That is incredible. Congratulations.
And I saw that you posted about it and you post about your wins quite often, but you do it in a way that it doesn't seem like it's bragging.
Can you tell us about your formula in regards to showing like progress and success stories,
but without looking like you're bragging?
How do you do it?
Yes, of course.
I love LinkedIn posts and LinkedIn,
because it's basically like, I just love the community and everybody is a part of it.
So what I say all the time is when you're making posts, especially for like announcements or
things like that, put some value into there of how you did it or just put a story where
people could relate to.
I think what happens is people just simply do this.
I'm happy to announce that I got a job at Deloitte.
Thank you, everybody.
That's it, right?
But the thing is, you want to give value to other people of number one.
How did you get to where you are now or how did you get to where you?
you got that position because then you empower other people to do the same.
This is why I stress people all the time.
That's how you get more engagement on the post because if people see that,
they're like, oh, wow, this person is very humble.
This person gives back to the community and this person wants to help me get into the company too as well.
So that's one part of it specifically with personal branding.
Number two, each of my posts actually have a back story or strategy behind it.
People think that they know the strategy when in fact, sometimes they don't,
but I'll give you an example, right?
Grace Hopper.
So Grace Hopper celebration, the post was in regards to what I would do if I was at Grace Hopper.
Obviously, I haven't been there.
I am not, I don't identify as a woman.
But what happened was the reason why I posted this was, number one,
Grace Hopper was happening the next week.
Number two, what I did was I found everybody who was a part of Grace Hopper.
They saw my post.
Number three, I got reached out to by Grace Hopper to speak next year.
Right?
So those are the three things that I did, and I just tagged them in it.
And then what I did was number four, I did a prep session the next week because I found all
the people number two that were attending Grace Hopper that were professionals and recruiters.
I brought them onto LinkedIn and then did a prep session.
And then what's even crazier is number five.
I didn't know this was going to happen.
The career fair got canceled at Grace Hopper.
So what I did was literally partnered with Glimps and Y Combinator to do a career fair the next day.
after they said it was canceled.
So then you have all those things.
I have all the people from Grace Hopper.
I have the speakers and professionals, the students.
And then now I have the career fair.
That's how I grew all the following,
because the way that people are able to view the career fair,
they have to follow on salting.
Right?
So that's exactly how.
That's amazing.
That's exactly how I did it.
But that's the kind of the back end strategy of everything.
Because I try to think, I don't care.
Like engagement's cool.
But like the thing is, like,
if it's able to get to that goal that I set to it,
that's what matters.
Yeah, that's so smart. You are such a smart, creative guy, seriously. Let's talk about your
speaking gigs. We've mentioned previously you've had like almost or over 100 speaking engagements.
You spoke at Google, LinkedIn, Cisco, Lyft, Samsung, Microsoft, TEDx. These are huge.
I want to get into speaking myself. I'm not, I've done a few things. I'm going to be at Propelify,
tech innovation festival. And so that's cool. Definitely not like anywhere close.
to you yet. So tell us, like, how did you get into speaking and how did you learn how to speak
really well? Because you have a great stage presence. You do really great talks. Like, what was
your process like in terms of being a speaker? Yeah, first thought everybody who's listening in,
Holla's going to be on one of our Wants Holding speaker series. So you all better follow Wandsholding
and check her out because she's going to kill it. So I'm just, I'm just saying that.
Number two. So, yeah, so how I gone to speaking was I accidentally got
into it. When I was a senior in college, basically I was doing a lot of, just helping a lot of
people. And one of the organizations that I was a part of was like, hey, do you want to come speak on
LinkedIn? And that's when I spoke. There's only 10 people. It's totally fine, right? But the thing is,
it's crazy, Hala, 95%, actually 99% of my speak engagements, I don't reach out for. Literally, they usually
reach out to me. And I think that's a good and a bad thing because I should be like, that's why I
hired like kind of a program manager too to kind of do some reachouts and some partnerships,
but most of them are reaching out to me just through LinkedIn. So LinkedIn has helped a tremendous
amount not only for getting my jobs, but all my speak engagements. Like the ones I told you for
LinkedIn, TEDx, all those were through LinkedIn. But basically, just to tie back, how you get
into speak engagements is number one. Just talk about the speaking engagements that you've done on LinkedIn
and post about it and then go tag the people who were specifically inviting you, because
what happens is they usually know other people who would invite you to as well.
So they'd bring you on. So that's one part. Number two, participate in speaker series on virtually.
That's why, for example, like Hala, I guarantee you that you will get hit up a lot after being on our speaker series by a lot of people asking you to speak.
The reason being is it happens all the time to every one of my speakers. And that's why I told the speaker, like, be prepared because you're going to have hundreds of people add you, but then you also can get invites to speak at other places.
So that's number two. So speaking at some large, large events. Number three, honestly, utilizing your
background, utilizing your story. If you have a relatable story, which we do, that's very important.
And other part is you have the credibility. Like, for example, Holly, you work at Disney and HP.
I worked at Google, Cisco, and Snap. We have the credibility of, okay, these people have been able to
build their own companies and they've been able to work at these top corporate companies.
Same for people who are trying to get speak engagements. Your credibility.
matters and you can build credibility if you don't work at a company, just build your own credibility
by speaking for free at different places. So yeah, that's what I would say about how you get speak
engagements. How I got better at them is being very engaging with the audience. I always ask questions.
On my LinkedIn live, my first question is always, where is everybody tuning in from? First question
every single time. Another thing is getting them involved. So why I ask that question is because then
I'll shout them out. I'll be like, all right, oh, I see I see Jonathan.
from New York. I see Marcus from New Jersey, whatever, right? Because then they feel valued and they feel
like, oh, wow, I'm getting listened to or I'm actually on the screen. So that is a part that I gained
the confidence in. Number two, the first impressions, the icebreaker. I always try to put an icebreaker
in the beginning or just making a statement, just being like, hey, all, how's everybody doing
and get everybody else comfortable? Because if you get the room comfortable, it ultimately translates
back to you. So I think that's very important.
But yeah, I mean, my speaking games, I spoke to Jordan.
I was one of the youngest speakers there.
How I got that was from LinkedIn.
I was super nervous.
But then I realized that I don't get nervous anymore because I realize that the words that you say, it's impactful.
All about mindset.
Are you thinking, oh, my gosh, what are these people thinking of me in a negative way?
Or are you thinking, how am I going to impact all the hundreds of people that are going to be here today?
That's how you do it.
Yeah.
Well, you read my mind.
Literally, my next question was, I love the way you start off your LinkedIn lives.
What are your tips to get an engaged crowd?
So to your point, you ask them where their location is so that they can engage, start typing,
and then you can shout them out, make them feel involved.
You also ask them for their energy levels.
What's your energy level?
One to ten.
And if they say two, you'll say, you've got to work on that.
And that's so important because it's like you feed off the energy of the crowd.
And it's a really smart tactic that you do.
For me, I haven't done like, you know, so many speaking engagements on stage, but I keep getting invited to other podcasts.
So that's helping me practice. It's just like telling my story over and over again on other podcasts.
But yeah, I would love to, like, did you take like any courses in terms of speaking or did you always like just have a good presence and ability to speak without saying like ums and us and kind of like doing it as good as you do it today?
Like did you take classes or courses for that?
I took none. No courses at all. I've literally just been, I just practiced myself. And I think it also
comes from doing a lot of workshops, but then also just knowing the content extremely well now.
So now I just kind of flows really well. And I feel like that ultimately translates because I still
remember when I was in college and different things. I tried to wing things. And that's when I got
nervous because I didn't know anything about the content. When people ask me questions, I'd be like,
oh, crap, like I don't know how to answer it. Right. But if you know the content really well and you know
you're passionate about it and you can feel that passion, that's what stands out, especially
when you're speaking, because then people are like, oh, this person knows what they're talking about.
So, yeah, I'd say, I never took a class, but if y'all are interested in learning more about
public speaking, honestly, just hit me up and let me know.
Thank you. That's very generous of you. Okay. So last question before we close this out.
I heard about your most popular LinkedIn post. It got almost 45,000 likes or something like that. Tell us about that post and why you think it went so viral.
Yeah, I think it went viral because, and the post was about my career journey, basically, from getting rejected and then getting to the corporate companies. But yeah, I think it went viral as number one is very relatable to a lot of people. So I think that's what really triggered it because people are like, oh, wow, like if this guy can do it, I can too.
number two, Jeff Wiener actually shared it, which was the CEO of LinkedIn.
He actually shared it.
It's kind of funny.
Someone shared it.
And then he shared the share of that other person.
So it was kind of, it was interesting.
And it went crazy.
Right.
So it went crazy.
That's why I was like, what the heck?
Why are there so many people liking it?
I was very confused.
But yeah, I think that's another reason.
Number three, I responded to all the comments.
All of the comments.
Like literally each one.
I don't know how the heck I did this.
about 2,000 comments almost, respond to each one.
The reason why I did that was because then I knew that the thousand people who commented on it
would feel that their voice is going to be heard.
That's why I respond to every comment.
Because if someone takes 30 seconds to comment on your post, take 10 seconds to do so.
Whether it's you, whether it's you have someone else to it, I don't know.
Right.
So that's why I think another part of it.
And that's actually the post that got me super popular at Cisco because people are like,
yo, you're the guy you just started Cisco, right?
Whenever I went to work, and they're like, yeah, yeah.
I was like, yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, all the senior leaders kind of knew me at school and stuff, so it was pretty cool.
That is cool.
Cool.
Well, the question that I asked all my guests that come on the show is, what is your secret to profiting in life?
All about the people you hang out with and associate with.
I think that's very important because they reflect who you are, but then they also impact
and influence how you react to things.
Look at your five closest friends.
Look at the five closest people you associate with.
and think to yourself, are these people that ultimately reflect who I am?
Think about those words, because if they are, then that's amazing.
If not, then go find people who will also motivate you to be even better than you are today.
I think that's what happened, especially early on in my career.
When I was a student like a freshman, I didn't have the biggest influences.
But then when I got on later on, I hung out with people who were more successful than me,
which then inclined me to be successful and strive for success as well.
So that's why I'd recommend to everybody.
Last but not least, what I say, my favorite quote,
if you never ask, you never know.
And if you never ask, the answer is always no.
So always remember to just ask.
And the worst thing that can happen is they say no or they don't say anything at all.
That's some great points right there.
There are lots of gems from you today, Jonathan.
Thank you so much.
And where can our listeners go to learn more about you and everything that you do?
Of course.
So yeah, if you all are interested, you can find me on LinkedIn, Jonathan Javier.
We have our website, wantsulting.com, with all our different services.
We actually just released a course, which is basically how to get into your dream career.
And we go through the whole entire cycle in regards to how to do it.
So that was awesome.
We just released it yesterday.
You can email us at hello at wantsulting.com.
You can find us on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, all those different ones.
So, yeah, that's what I had to say.
Awesome.
Thank you so much.
Of course.
Thank you so much.
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