11 Steps to Become an Expert in Your Field

Do you want to be known as “the man” or “the woman” in your field?

A legend?

I do.

And, I’m proud to say so.

But I don’t master my craft because I need external adoration. That’s not the driver.

I do it for me and because it serves you.

My friends and family don’t understand my uncommon drive probably because it’s uncommon—truly rare.

If you want to be a 1%-er do you think behaving like the other 99% will get you there?

In The Zebra Code (get the BOGO offer NOW while it supplies last), I wrote a chapter called “Mastering Your Trade.”

I emphasize the importance of developing not just specific job skills, but foundational capabilities that transcend your particular trade. These are the skills that set you apart and enable you to excel no matter the industry you're in.

I cover the strategic approach to skill mastery, starting with building the right mindset, cultivating an attitude of abundance and optimism, continually learning, and seeking the right mentors and educational opportunities.

On we go to identifying the right capabilities and building and practicing them diligently. And never stopping.

All of these efforts are part of a personalized roadmap that guides your growth and ensures you're always moving forward, even when you hit inevitable bumps along the way.

Do you want to commit to excellence?

Do you want to become an expert in your field?

The first step is only a chapter or video away.

This ENTIRE week I’m treating you to some serious assets that will catapult your career.

The only two questions are, “Will you take advantage of them?”

“Will you keep going?”

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my three books related to interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I've got 11 steps that I want to cover with you that focus more on how you become the best at
your trade the best of the best or the best you you can be what are the steps I would take to
become better at my domain if you're an engineer if you're an accountant if you actually are a
marketer or a seller or a consultant who operates uh and improves business processes whatever it

(00:25):
might be this is for you and and another way to look at today as well is if you are considering
a career change or if you are considering a mild career pivot or if you're jumping into a
new industry or whatever it might be right I know some of us who are going through our career we're
very dialed in we know what we want to happen we know where we want to go so uh but some of

(00:48):
us are considering changes well today is for you too first thing I want you to do there is a there
is a workbook that is specific to today's lesson so we have not told you about this yet but it's a
workbook like this yours is going to say master your craft or master your trade on the front of
it and this is a booklet with a lot of what I'm going to be talking about specifically today but

(01:12):
the other nice thing about this particular booklet is in the back of the booklet I have a 10day or a
10 week challenge that you can you can follow in order to implement the lessons from today if you
should have to H if you happen to have a copy of this book there is a 10day and 10 we challenge in

(01:32):
the master your trade chapter but I realize not everybody has the book I understand everybody
but I want to get the book and so I don't want anybody to be jilted so I want to I so I have this
workbook that you can grab it's totally free Carol will put it in the chat and and just and just uh
just download it it'll go right to your inbox I always like to outline the steps that I've that

(01:57):
I think about that I take whenever I have tried to grow my skills become better at my trade and
I've outlined what I think are are basically we'll call it 11 or you could call it 10 cu
the first one's really like Step Zero because it's the foundation for everything else that's
built upon it but one of the things that that I I want to say is that attitude itself is not

(02:22):
a it's not a benow platitude about having a good attitude and how that can actually change the way
you experience whatever it is you're going to experience and perform whatever it is you're going
to perform and Inspire others as well and I have this quote in the book that optimism is something

(02:44):
you manufacture from your attitude but inspiration is something somebody else manufactures from your
optimism and those all work in Tandem and in in in Out Of Reach but Insight using goals to achieve
your imposs possible this this this speech that became a book that I gave in 2013 it was actually

(03:06):
when I gave the speech I talked about uh to to to the to the uh to the audience that as I
thought back and I looked at all the people that I had consulted to the companies I consulted to
the people that I had managed as a corporate practitioner as well as all the people that I
interviewed recruited as an executive recruiter and I said to stay true to that and to stay true

(03:31):
to the zebra code uh book as well I said there are three things that I notice about all successful
people they have passion vision and commitment they're passionate about what they're doing I'm
not saying I want you to pursue your passion I don't think passion works that way you don't we

(03:51):
we're not born with passion it's something that we discover a love for something from the time
we were born till now and you need to be able to nurture that in different formats over your
career my passion has always been about helping people except I used my talent in engineering and
a mathematical and a scientific mind to go into an engineering field that brought me into an IT and

(04:17):
management consulting profession but my passion was still around helping people but I was talented
in engineering related analytical related business process engineering related stuff so I got a job
that would pay the bills and then I found a way to focus in on leveraging my talent to focus in on my

(04:38):
passion and then it evolved into my executive recruitment firm where I took one step closer
to focusing just on helping people and now I'm a career coach who exclusively focuses on helping
individuals but I had a vision at each stage of that that helped me understand where I wanted to
take that passion and a commitment to never stop doing it now talk more about this in the book and

(05:01):
I would encourage you to read that but I wanted to give you something a little different today
something I've been working on that I really wanted to make a whole talk about this and I
think I mentioned this to the book clubbers a few weeks back maybe even a whole month but I wanted
to give you another way of looking at something that I think I I I wanted to say how do I look at

(05:22):
people that what what's the magic that they have in common that I could I could share with you that
I think in addition to Passion Vision commitment but to give you something more tangible and I
think I think everybody that I've met and I want to put myself in this bucket because I want to
share a personal story with you uh about about about the myok academy but I think that people

(05:47):
that really got it all going on they they work in these frames they have a framework they understand
the framing and I'm going to explain what these are and they have the right frame of mind
okay so number one they have a system a strategy or an approach to anything that they do and this

(06:08):
this is likely the least important thing it truly is the story they feed themself so I talked to you
about framing right priming is moving someone's emotional state to the place you want it framing
is getting someone to look at and interpret your message the way you want them to interpret

(06:30):
but guess what the same goes for you the internal talk the internal talk that we have what's the
story you tell yourself and so I will tell you the story I tell myself but the story you tell
yourself matters the rhetoric matters and so if you tell yourself well I'm going to fake

(06:50):
it till I make it don't ever do that because this skull-shaped Kingdom knows every deep
dark secret of yours you could lie to a lot of people including me which you'll never lie to
yourself so if you think you're faking it till you make it you're going to be a faker forever
you'll never make it if if you're trying to tell yourself well I stink and I I I'm always a bum

(07:11):
and I'm always going to fail you will but if you believe you'll succeed and I'm not just saying
just cuz you think it and you want to manifest it into your life that it's going to happen no
it's hard work it's hard work but I know if I put the hard work in I will succeed because I
have always succeeded and if I if I give myself enough time to succeed you can damn well bet I'm

(07:32):
going to succeed but then the state of mind is how do I feel at any moment in time and this is
where attitude comes in am I going to experience it and whatever I'm going through am I going to
gain the benefits of the experience I also have told you in the zebra code among many other places

(07:53):
that experience is not what's happened to you it's the meaning you attach to what's happened to you
and I think this is the magic these three things so now I want to tell you now I want to tell you a
story that gives me a chance to clean up something I said on Tuesday that when I checked the tape I
don't think it came out exactly how I intended it and so I wanted to clear it up so you all are you

(08:17):
know you you all have found me later in my career and in 2015 I made a commitment to be a career
coach in this capacity the capacity that most of you know me and when I started in 2015 it was July
1st literally I made a commitment on July 1st of 2015 I said I need I need to figure out a way to

(08:42):
coach individuals and not just coach individuals to help them with 100% of their life as it relates
to their career but I want to reach people around the world and I have to figure out how to do that
but I'm going to figure out how to do that and I need to reestablish or basically at this point
create a new brand for myself I was an executive recruiter at the time so obviously I knew how to

(09:06):
run a recruitment firm I knew how to recruit I knew how to sell recruitment services so I I
knew Marketing sales service and a number of other things from a consultative standpoint and I knew
how to hire and I knew how to interview and I knew how a bunch of these other things but I I was a
businesso business um organization I sold Business Services to another business business in this case

(09:30):
was recruitment services so between July 2015 I and and and November of 2016 I reestablished
that brand so 15 16 months whatever whatever it was but the thing that I had to decide was
what is my overall strategy going to be for my new business and let me tell you what I mean about the

(09:53):
strategy I didn't have to have it all figured out and I didn't need to know exactly what it looked
like I needed to know I knew that I could teach on if I was going to help individuals job searching
I could teach them on Career Development high performance success and those kind of things and I
probably was better equipped at that time to teach you about leadership development but I didn't

(10:16):
teach you about leadership development and I didn't brand myself that way what did I do I said
I want to think about if I gave myself forever at that time right this is years ago so I'm I'm 49 at
the time or whatever I whatever I was if I gave myself 30 years to do this right which forever

(10:39):
what would I do and I thought job searching stinks it's an acute pain and people they need help and
if if I could solve that acute pain for them then that would make me that would make me happy and
I'm equipped to do that so instead of teaching the leadership ship development first let's teach

(11:00):
job searching but not because it's aute pain I thought if if I really had forever to do this
if I teach them about job searching first and I build them programs and they get to know me and
they and and I can do it in a manner that shows them I basically can help them with their entire
career I could then second build a leadership development program so that somebody I could help

(11:26):
somebody find their job and I could help somebody thrive in it and that'd be a One-Stop shop to be
a career place for them to go to get basically anything that they needed that that's my that's
my vision my strategy to grow into that is to do the job searching first and then build build a
relationship with you gain your trust expose you to a lot of the career development stuff so that

(11:51):
the entire mile walk Academy Universe Works in harmony with each other the job searching stuff
creates a halo effect and that trust for somebody who enters into my community that way is going to
and the person who wants to put in the effort to develop their career is my kind of person I don't
want to just fix them in their job search and let them run away and never see them again although I

(12:13):
know I'm going to have to sacrifice the first few years to do that because I can only do so much at
at a singular point in time so I'm going to give myself three to four years to do nothing but job
search coaching which is what I did and I I said once I get the job search coaching in a format
that I want not every piece together but in a format what that format was was I didn't know it

(12:34):
was going to look like there was online training there was individual resume reviewing there was
individual coaching there was group coaching there was online support that to me that was the
complete tool set where they individuals would have every modality once that's up and running
which it was in in 2019 March I implemented the leadership coaching program and the other day I

(12:56):
said well I I didn't really have a strategy that's not entirely true true I had a strategy I knew
I wanted a subscription model I knew I would be teaching every month I knew I would be providing
workbooks like this and creating of a library what would probably have been more accurate for me to
say is I didn't know exactly what the whole thing would look like as it evolved over time but guess

(13:17):
what I didn't know I was going to write this book I just knew I needed to get in motion but I was
always in motion inside this framework it is never never changed not in nearly 10 years it looks no
different I drew a grid 10 years ago that had this line and this line and I've just been filling it

(13:40):
in ever since now things might have changed within the little grid but the grid itself hasn't changed
some of the little deliverables that I create for you have changed but the lanes are still there the
major assets are still there the modalities are still there and I'm going to continue to do that
so there were some dark days people there were some dark days there was no balance in my life

(14:05):
but then again if you want to be a 1ent how do you think you're why would you think you're going
to have balance in your life if you're going to be a 1center you're not going to be a 1center by
working 40 hours a week right punching the clock and then spending every other minute outside of
work doing other stuff that's okay if you want to do that but if you want to become a 1center

(14:26):
there's going to need to be a little obsession invol but that's okay but the story I kept feeding
myself is I'm going to do it because I've done everything else in my life and I'm going to fail
a whole bunch of times but in the long term it's going to be a success and then at every moment in
time I never let myself get frustrated with the outcome based results we talked about this the

(14:47):
other day because when you have expectations you know when I sold my first online training program
and 50 people bought it in November and early December of 2016 I could have said gez you can
only sell it to 50 people instead of I made my first business to Consumer sale and 50 people

(15:08):
had faith in me enough to actually reach into their pocket and pull out their credit card and
swipe it that is a big freaking deal and so the story I keep feeding myself and the state of mind
that I constantly remind myself to have because it's not automatic it isn't you have to slow down

(15:30):
your thinking otherwise it'll run at the speed of your emotions so you have to constantly intercept
yourself to give yourself the right frame of mind and feed yourself the right narrative who's
tracking this if you turn the camera if you just clicked me off right now but you got this you won
today cuz this to me is the trick for all of you you get this right you can do anything and then

(15:55):
the rest of what I'm about to tell you is pretty good stuff too but it all starts here give me I'm
tracking in the chat you see what I mean so when I say attitude optimism inspiration this is what
I'm talking about all right cool cool tracking Jamie what's up hope you and Wendy are watching me

(16:18):
together Amy Baker perspective is key Andy's tracking Ryan's tracking Kendra's tracking I love
it all right number two what the hell is the zra code all about it's about this one capabilities
the transcending skills the skills that make the best the best the skills that make the best

(16:46):
the best and what's the zebra code about the zebra code is filled with nothing but capabilities right
the foundational traits like Focus like empathy like self-awareness like or organization forming
good habits and routines knowing how to interact with people so let's talk about this you all do

(17:08):
something very very specific I help people find jobs I help them thrive in them too okay I help
them find jobs there's the job searching knowledge that I have to have how do you write a resume how
do you interview effectively how do you negotiate your salary how do you how do you change careers

(17:32):
all of that all of that is domain expertise it is my trade it is my craft it's my domain expertise
my subject matter expertise but I am a career coach who does that and so in order for me to be
the best career coach what do I need well I need listening skills I need research searching skills

(18:00):
I need to understand what those good steps are I need evaluation skills of what people
might go through the mistakes they might make my communication skills have to be solid oh I have
to sell stuff because I have to get people to buy my stuff so I can help them on the deepest level
so I need sales skills I need marketing skills I need Community Building skills I need relationship

(18:22):
building skills all of these kinds of things are foundational meaning they'll make the best career
coaches the best career coaches anybody can steal my resume template and say here here's
a good resume here follow this that doesn't make him a good coach because I also need to recognize

(18:43):
what what which buttons of yours to push I mean that in a good way not in a manipulative way but
how to inspire you because any dumpy coach can read The Playbook right and spit out the steps
they could just watch my videos and and and and spit back what I said said to you except the best
coaches will inspire you to take on challenge that you a either would otherwise not take on

(19:05):
but now will because you have the confidence to do that or B if you needed to take on the
challenge anyway like find a job you'll do it with more Vigor and confidence so you all for whatever
it is throw throw your business function in the chat give me some of your business functions and
I'll spit out some capabilities specifically for you so that we can we can map this this

(19:28):
up so tell me what you do give me a couple of word a verb noun combo a noun verb combo or
your title of what you do specifically and I'll tell you what the capabilities are to give you an
idea okay Kendra customer experience and customer success okay so obviously you got

(19:50):
to have some working knowledge of your product but what you really need to understand is um
interviewing of the interiew your interviewing skills of your customer what are your goals what
are your objectives evaluation of their resources what are you going to be throwing at this project
implementing this software uh merging this or whatever because you have a product that

(20:12):
you want to ensure they're using properly and integrating it into their environment you need
good business process re-engineering skills or technology engineering skills or whatever
it is but stuff like that oh what about customer service skills what about listening SK skills to
evaluate uh what they're what they're saying what about diagnosing hey often times well there's a

(20:35):
communication aspect often times customers trip up here here and here we want to make sure we can
preempt that and prevent that or mitigate you from doing that by educating you here here and here you
got to be able to anticipate based on what they're saying all of that's deduction so those are some
capabilities for you let me grab somebody else a trainer Cheryl she's a trainer or training

(20:59):
specialist you got to have great presentation skills but you also need to be able to apply
real life examples and integrate them into your training but when you're training there's a way
for you to what communicate it but maybe you need to document it so maybe you need some good writing
skills or maybe you need some practical business skills or subject matter expertise for what you're

(21:22):
doing but but if you are a trainer and your job is to relay what somebody needs to do whether
it's mechanical or whether it's technological or whether it's data entry or whether it's whatever
so you're going to need to be a you're going to need to have strong presentation skills strong
communication skills those to me writing skills those are going to be uh some of the foundational

(21:44):
capabilities that's what I'm talking about so whatever you're training whatever you're training
every trainer needs those so and then it depends what additional functions you have um there might
be some evaluation skills you might you might then look at and and there might be an evaluation
component to what you do maybe you don't just train them but you're also responsible for

(22:06):
their improvement over 6 months or a year you've got to evaluate their performance you have to be
able to take what's happening and you have to have analysis skills that say oh if they're lagging in
this that means I need to teach them differently alter this have refresher course or whatever so
there are a number of foundational skills um a lot of you are marketers a lot of you are Sellers and

(22:31):
those kinds of things some of you are accountants or Engineers the accountants the engineers you
need good analytical skills good thinking skills you need to be detail oriented that's a trait how
do you become more detail oriented some of you that are sellers well you need human psychology
you need to be able to to to be organized you need to know how to present how to how to not just your

(22:55):
pitch and selling your product but also listen to the customer so that you could diagnose and make
an analogy of how your particular product is going to fit into their environment and what the right
kind of solution would be and then you might even be the one that's responsible for customer success
or you might turn it over to somebody else so the customer service skills and those kinds of
things I think you get what I'm saying here the point is no matter what you do There's A playbook

(23:23):
for it all you project managers could go to the PM you know PMI and get the PMP certification
training any project manager can do that and if you go to that to those classes and you take that
certification test it basically means you're just like everybody else you all learn to sing from the
same song sheet but if you have the capabilities customer service organization staff management

(23:49):
right leadership and other things you're going to become much better than people who are just
reading the Playbook and executing it all right teacher now I talked with you the other day about
getting a stable of coaches but one of the things I want to do today so in general as
you're building your overall skill building plan you're going to find those skills that you need

(24:11):
to build and and in particular what I'm talking about are the capabilities that you need to build
and you're going to go at at the teachers well if you want to master your trade same kind of thing
but I want to take a deeper dive today and I want to talk about the eight things that I would look
at if I was evaluating any coach so this goes for you evaluating me it goes for you evaluating every

(24:33):
other YouTuber any other author blogger online trainer anybody you're using that you or anybody
that you're using as as part as a body part to your Franken Mentor all right number one do they
know their stuff now some of you might be coming at this from a standpoint of Andy I don't know
anything and so if it sounds like they know what they're doing I might not know until I've tried it

(24:57):
yeah I get that how many of you show hands don't worry we're not going to I'm not going to show the
chat how many of you tried some other trainers and said geez this isn't working but hey coach Andy's
got my back this guy he everything he says seems to work right I know that's out there because I
get emails every day from people who download my stuff and when you download my stuff it says

(25:20):
welcome and more resources there's an email and I say here's 100 words on me give me 100 words
on you and I read those I responded like four or five of them this morning right and I I see what
you say hey I was following so and so that didn't seem to be working I got your resume template and
this thing's way better or something like that but you know what I mean right you you have to curate

(25:41):
this stuff all right number two results okay folks repeat after me everybody repeat after me the
YouTubers subscriber count is not an indication of how awesome they are or the results that they
will give you the subscriber count is meaningless a subscriber is a real person with real problems

(26:05):
and real aspirations just like me if somebody's SEO is better than mine or YouTube loves them
better or whatever or they put more time into it good kudos to them but are the is the trainer
or coaches getting results and and their own my individ how rich I am and how many millions I make

(26:26):
a year is not results results is how many people find jobs how many people love their careers
thanks to Dear coach Andy it's your results that you need to to to monitor other people's results
look at their case studies do their case studies sound realistic why do you think I have video case
studies of me interviewing people sharing their stories with you and all the nonsense and mistakes

(26:52):
they made and all the myths they had to figure out thanks to me and how they found their job or how
they negotiated for our money or how they're so happy right because I want you to hear from them
directly and because they're telling you their real life story and you're going to you're going
to be able to compare your issues to what they're facing that's reality right but people who say you
know when I get emails from coaches who say Andy we can five times your Revenue in two minutes I'm

(27:18):
like what what are you talking about like you're not going to do that for me that's nonsense doeses
that stuff actually work don't don't fall don't fall prey to that and then their style guess what
coach Andy gives it to you straight lots of times coach Andy will be gentle but you're big boys and
girls and I'm going to respect you to where I'm going to give it to you straight and I'm going to

(27:41):
tell you look if you want it to work you're going to have to put the work in but don't worry because
this is a comfortable place too and I'm empathetic and you got to roll all that in to how I deliver
what I deliver and I might rub some people the wrong way and I know there's no way I'm going to
please 8 billi the other s you know billion 999 million whatever blah blah blah out there I know

(28:07):
that's I'm going to fail at that but I'm going to be me and hopefully that resonates with you I
might I might not be your cup of tea you might want somebody younger you might want somebody
closer to your age you might want a woman it makes no difference to me just figure out if their style
works for you and then love this well I I want you to love me and I love you and I really love you

(28:30):
guys for coming to the shows but I'm talking about do they love what they're teaching because if they
don't love what they're teaching they're not going to be around to be your coach very long and so I
love this I loved writing this I did it was hard it was really hard but all I kept thinking about

(28:53):
was you every morning before I started writing I go through a process that makes sure I fixate on
you I know it sounds kind of obsessed but it works because I'm not writing this for me I'm writing it
for you but there's subject matter in here about building your career and everybody who has a good
career is generally happy generally and so I want to help you find the right job that matters to me

(29:18):
I've already heard all the resume issues I already know all the interviewing issues so I have to
challenge myself to stay engaged and challenge myself to teach you better but the subject
matter itself I love and while you might not like interviewing I get it but can we make this fun
can we make it about developing your communication skills can we make it about your your presentation

(29:40):
skills can we make it about how you get better at remembering what you want to say and how you
inspire the interviewer to know that their life is going to transform can I get you to look at it
differently that I love it will I will never not love it so that's why I'm still here got to look
for that you got to look for that okay are they I'm partial to this one five available are they

(30:07):
available I was here with my my book launched team on Monday I was here with you on Tuesday
I'm here with you on Thursday next week I got a whole bunch of stuff week after that I'm live
four days like I I the videos go out every single day the YouTube videos Tuesday long form Monday

(30:28):
Wednesday Thursday is a live show Friday Saturday Sunday you get shorts every day
I'm there for you I got to keep giving it to you you catch what you can but am I available
for you to ask questions there are a lot of books that I read that I think are nice and
they're good and I learn stuff but they'll never be in my stable of coaches because I don't even

(30:50):
know I don't even know whether those people have a YouTube channel or where they speak or whether
they have conferences or programs or whatever so if you're not available I'm not going to learn
anything from you I you read a book but you got to reinforce that stuff that's fine some people
might just like that all right are they generous do they give away free stuff so a lot of people

(31:11):
give premiums away but are the premiums empty are they ples to get your email I try to give
you as much as possible I say move the free line people say Andy how do you give so much
away I'm like I don't know my my free stuff's really awesome my my paid stuff's even awesomer
right so so so gauge that and then the modality do they going back to kind of Point number five are

(31:35):
they available but is the modality they offer you the modality you want so it's great if you give me
all these books Andy this is a 352 page book but I Andy I I I need to see you I need to feel like
you're talking to me or I love to listen to you when I run on the podcasts do you have a podcast

(31:59):
can we do some meetups can I meet you and hug you I'm a hugger I'm Italian this is like this
is the way it is you get what I'm saying right and then last do they inspire me if you're not
inspired quit them quit them period heart step okay enough on this was that was that

(32:21):
helpful to see like this is a big deal and it by way it's okay like it's okay that that they
you know if somebody teaches once a week or once a month or that's okay just make it fit
you I want to be me I want to be me so okay cool cool number three all right number four

(32:51):
practice makes permanent it's two things about practicing that I want to tell you
so you better get some good instruction because whatever you you can Groove anything you can
Groove anything but just make sure you're grooving it the right way and so number

(33:12):
one you got to get the right instruction but number two you you you must if you want to get
better you must practice progressively what does that mean okay so I wrote In the book
that um and I I almost I I can give you the the quick quote but I think I might I think I might

(33:35):
even be able to find the exact quote and message and the relationship between success and failure
uh let me see where I I I I I don't know that I'm going to be able to get to it quickly but I talk
about confidence in you and confidence has a lot more to do with your relationship with failure
than success when we succeed it's easy to be confident but we should be failing daily we should

(34:01):
be failing daily and I'm not talking about you are a a failure a failure a singular failure does not
make you a complete failure I want you to have lots of little failures every single day so that
you can you can continually get better so what do I mean well remember the other day and I was

(34:24):
saying hey I wanted to get better at at the video so so the first thing I needed to do is I needed
to get the video camera on okay check so far so good and then I wanted to be able to to give you
a a Blog video a vlog a video that I would put on my on my Vlog and the first thing that I needed
to do was I needed to be able to make sure that I can hold eye contact I needed to be able to

(34:46):
have my notes because I needed to teach I needed to get through the steps well every time I would
try to incrementally get better whether that's faster smoother whatever then I I failed and so
that was a minor fail but it was a fail because I kept practicing to get better and every time I
tried to do it I'd conch out that's right because that means I was pushing myself it wasn't if I'm

(35:09):
just really successful and I keep doing the same thing over and over again I'm not actually getting
better I'm just getting better at the same level and I want you to continually get better so you've
got to practice more difficult efforts in order to become better Progressive L and so you need to
be practicing perfectly and then making mistakes as you hit the next level and know that you will

(35:36):
hit them and know that that's a sign that you made the attempt that you keep at it you're
going to be able to get there I mean I remember the first time I swam in a lake and how tired I
was like this isn't even like this isn't even the same sport is swimming in a pool and so then it
was how far could I go and then it was I wait I I know it's going to be windy this afternoon I'm

(36:00):
waiting till it's 30 mph winds until I get into that water so that I got stuff splashing in my
face that's getting harder and harder and harder that's progressively getting better so that's what
I'm talking about longer faster short whatever it is that's what you're trying to do and in

(36:21):
order to practice perfectly what do you need what do you need in order to practice perfectly give
me first answer get assigned hard cover unless you already have unless you already have assigned hard
cover what is one thing you absolutely need in order to practice
perfectly first answer gets a signed

(36:45):
book oh got to get out of well Amy know that yes you have to start but
that's not what I'm looking for yes you need I'm talking about what what is the
key ingredient to making sure your practice is is correct well a good teacher is pretty
close deliberate is good plan all right you know what I'm going with I'm going with this is not

(37:15):
exactly what I meant but I'm going with David Matthews plan but what I was really looking for
is you need lessons meaning you need someone to give you the proper instruction because if
you don't have the proper instruction you won't know how to practice why do you think there are
month-long challenges with the steps in here to get you moving in the right direction so

(37:38):
Dave Dave Matthews I don't know if you're the singer Dave Matthews seek Cara she'll give you
a sign hard cover wherever you are in the world okay next thing is oh wait I like this we're not
Peter Parker we're now on consistency Jamie we're now on consist showing up the same way
so I show up for me each right each day and I show up consistently start about the same time

(38:05):
do same things detail oriented right I I have a bias for Action those kind of things same kind of
thing so Cara takes her cues from me right if I'm detail oriented and I'm always there for her and
I'm detail oriented she'll be detail oriented if you are not showing up consistently for yourself

(38:27):
that's really bad but the people around you take their queue from you I don't care where you are
on the on the or chart or on the ladder but if you're detail oriented and conscientious your
team will or your teammates will be or your staff will be your manager probably will be it will grow
on them and this is really really important that you're not Mercurial in anything that you do you

(38:52):
show up consistently now do you know how a lot of what I teach you is hey my job Seekers you
want to you want a job search well you need to do the job search challenge you need and if you
don't know what the job search challenges you can look it up on my on my on my channel but you need
to consistently reach out to three companies a day three people one in each company and you

(39:13):
need to send three messages one to each person every day consistently I show up every Thursday
if not more frequently if I'm going to tell you that consistency rules the day how do you think
that looks if I don't show up every Thursday or at least quite frequently for you you get

(39:34):
a newsletter every Tuesday at 6:30 never miss ever ever I would have to be dead for you not
to get that thing consistency so that's what I mean if I'm going to preach it and recommend it
you got to see that it works or you got to see me doing it it's not a do as I say not as I do

(39:56):
your mom your mom can get away with that my mom can get away with that that's what I mean you got
to you got to show up the same way in everything that you do I'm not saying you got to be a robot
with your feelings I'm just saying be consistent believe me you can miss a couple days out of a
100 when I wrote this book when I wrote this book December 2nd I tweaked the outline December 3rd

(40:21):
boom I was off running never missed not Christmas not New Year's not Valentine's Day not not Martin
Luther this or president's that or nothing every day it didn't matter s Saturday Sunday it made
holiday it made no difference I needed to show up for myself and that's how stuff gets done and so
the people around you will take their ceue from you we talked about tools so I want to go through

(40:46):
this quickly figure out what you need and I talked more at length about this the other day but no
matter what you do you need tools uh you know uh this is a tool I got a card I'm showing you a card
it's a tool camera's a tool mixer's a tool my blue wind muff that I love is a tool the microphone's

(41:08):
a tool the stand's a tool okay zoom's a tool you want to practice your presentation skills put zoom
on hit it boom go talk how do I look want to build a habit get a paper habit tracker start biting
check marks I don't care what it is but don't go spending a lot of money on tools you want to chop
the tree down you need the ax right or you need the chainsaw or you need something so figure out

(41:34):
what the tools are for practice and for execution we I kid you not I probably look for tools every
week not as diligently some weeks as others Andy AI for those of you that are fortunate enough to
have it that's a tool it has 12 million of Andy's words in Andy Ai and Andy's lessons that's a tool

(41:59):
I got another tool to give you I didn't know 5 years ago that I was going to have Andy aai for
you now all of you ask your questions to Andy AI which makes real Andy feel lonely actually
real Andy's happy because he knows you're getting your answers really fast because real Andy is not
as fast as Andy AI Andy AI is pretty empathetic too from what the way I programmed it from what I

(42:22):
hear okay so you get what I'm saying right so make sure you got the right tools and let's talk about
networking let's talk about networking uh network with a purpose so so what do I mean by this
so a lot of people say well you know I hear I need to grow my network and I don't like

(42:43):
talking to people well that first off let's get over that the network that you have is going to
be your best next to me next no Next to Me Andy and my products and community that I offer you for
job searching and career development your network is the next best thing to have because the people
that are around you so I always say to people you will never have a how problem if you don't have a

(43:11):
who problem if if if you know the right who's wh you'll never have a how problem because somebody
will always be able to help you out somebody will always be able to connect you advise you
or whatever much of the time the struggles in your life are because you don't have the
right who's around you and you know we've you've probably heard that right where the average of

(43:34):
the five people that we spend the most time with I would say you're probably the average of The
Five People You pay most attention to but let's not split hairs there is truth to the to that
expression but what I would say to you is most people make two big mistakes when they Network
or dare I say don't Network the first thing is they only Network when they need something like

(43:57):
I'm out of the job and I need somebody to help get me into whatever so now I need to start networking
well that's bad and then and then they they get their fix they get their job and then they don't
Network anymore until they get fired again and then they need the network again and networking
is about giving and it is about giving first put put your chits out there build your bank

(44:20):
up of Goodwill but more importantly the tip I really want to drive home today is when you're
from a professional standpoint and a mastering of your trade standpoint you need to draw or or
should draw a networking map of who is it that will help me with my goals and so what I always

(44:41):
say to my job Seekers so obviously my job-seeking side I always say network based on where you want
to go and then figure out who can take you there so if you want to get into Coca-Cola do you know
anybody at Coca-Cola do you know anybody who knows any body at Coca-Cola is there a particular boss
we could try to hunt down at Coca-Cola so that's I want to go there how do I get there as opposed to

(45:06):
what a lot of people do is they call out to their friends and they say I lost my job do you know of
anything I mean how's that going to work right now I have to think about what is it that you
want where should I send you you're you're put me in the Big Blue Ocean I don't know how how to help
you so what I tell people is where do you want to go do you want to speak at that conference well
who are the people that organized the conference figure that out then see if you either want to

(45:28):
reach into them directly that's networking or get somebody to introduce you or whatever so I
used the example maybe the other the other day or maybe it was last week about well if if I need to
write a book well who are all the Publishers that publish the kind of books that I write well that
goes on that is the start of the networking publisher a publisher B publisher C well who

(45:52):
works at those publishing agencies that we need to get to acquisition editor they're The Gatekeepers
of book ideas and book proposals to see if that publisher is willing to pay for your book well how
do we get to them well you need a literary agent or you need to know the Acquisitions editor either
works but some Publishers won't work directly with authors fine who are they and then you're

(46:13):
drawing Maps so on my networking map uh when I was starting out as a career coach and I wrote
about this story in in the zra code uh one of my trainers was saying oh if you want to expand your
uh coaching platform or your blogging platform a lot of the a lot of the um e will uh allow you to

(46:39):
contribute all you need to do is submit your article on their website and you could check
out like one of them is the Huffington Post now the huff post so this is I don't know back in
2016 I think it was uh around the summertime and uh I think it was around summertime 2016
and so uh so I had somebody on my on my uh team named Ronda and I said all right Rhonda um we're

(47:04):
going to we're going to submit an article on The Huffington Post here's 30 articles I want
you to I want you to take uh you know an article every single day and and the first thing you do
when you click on your computer is you just copy the article and you submit it in into their into
their form it's like the applicant trashing system of blog posts and then let's see if we get a hit

(47:28):
30 there's 1 through 30 every single day for the next 6 weeks do that so she did that and we heard
absolutely nothing so on my networking map was Ariana Huffington there were some of the editors
that whose names I found I didn't know anybody who knew them so I sent Ariana Huffington a message
directly on a Thursday like my dinner time she answered me the next morning and said I explained

(47:55):
to her who I was what what I wanted I put the email I put the exact email in the book uh for
you to see how I wrote it to her and then I showed you what her response was we'd love to feature
your voice I've copied meline the blogging editor and then I mean I'm reading this and then and then
she says meline will follow up with you and then my next email was meline with my login credentials
and she's like here Andy here you go boom boom boom here's log in go post whatever you want so I

(48:20):
did and I did that and then that was a Friday and then on Saturday I got in my car and I was driving
uh to the grocery store and I pulled into the lot and I grabbed my phone and I was about to um
I wanted to uh text my wife just to just to make sure I had everything that we needed and I noticed
that I had nearly 10,000 like I have a little bubble right the the bubble and the and the mail

(48:45):
icon I don't have any alerts but the bubbles there actually I don't even have any bubbles anymore but
at this time I did and it was like 10,000 emails like oh my god what happened and I open up my
email and I see all these download emails from our system that Cara and I were using at that time to
give away our premiums and my first article got posted on like the business section at the top

(49:08):
and it stayed there for 10 days so for like the next 10 days we had downloads like that so all of
those people around the world had found me in a matter of one day now obviously it was more
than one day's worth of work but on my network mat wasar out Huffington and I I just tried to
work my way into her and then finally I just want I'm an to email her directly and and that's what
happened and so but do you have somebody you want to meet and and so it could be a person

(49:32):
it could be a name it could be it could just be hey the dude who runs that uh show the dude who
runs that podcast the person who runs that event whatever it might be but you got to have a map
and then what's the next thing you got to do you got to work the map so every every Friday or so I

(49:54):
reach out I just send a few emails out of people that I I want to maintain a relationship with and
I got little ticklers in my calendar or whatever that that that alert me o send so and so something
send him a hey send him a book send him an article send him a thing you wrote send him a whatever
give him a hug I don't whatever it is and then off it goes this I have this in in I have this

(50:16):
all in Spades in the networking chapter in the book so it's a it's a it's a it's a good one and
then well it took me a while to figure this one out listen listen to the right people who are the
right people your customers the people you serve you all have customers I have customers you might

(50:38):
think well Andy you just you you rule your own day no I got customers I don't have customers I
don't have a business I don't have a community I don't have a business so who do I listen to
you who's my best source of data you who tells me what my programs and products the problems
they need to solve you what did I do Back in the Day in 2016 I said if I was a job Seeker based

(51:05):
on all my evaluation of all these people and all the techniques I've used and learned and talked
to these are the five pillars that somebody needs to generally go through depending on who they are
depending on their goal but basically speaking these tactics these five tactics will serve any
job Seeker they have to start the right place they have to develop their marketing material

(51:29):
to bring themselves to Market like your resume and your LinkedIn profile they have to be able to
job search they have to be able to interview and they have to be able to negotiate their salaries
that's how it started that's what I built and then what happened you told me Edie oh my God
they got oneway in video interviews now what am I going to do don't worry about it I'll fix that
for you Andy what's this with this applicant trashing says don't worry I'll figure that

(51:52):
out for you Andy well they keep asking me these stupid questions what should I say don't worry
I'll I'll formulize that for you and I just keepo right every week I show up every week you guys
tell me what's wrong every week I fix something for you the products get better and better and
better your greatest opportunities will be found in the sounds of other people's complaints pay

(52:15):
attention do not listen to your competitors otherwise you're just going to build what they
have I build what you want I said how else can I make this better give them online support let's
do that let's have group coaching sessions great they need reviews on the resumes let's do that
they need one toone coaching fine we're going to do that record it for them even better you

(52:38):
get what I'm saying right if I was Hawking career coach YouTube channels I would be just giving you
the same dang videos that they're giving you or I would be giving them to you with the same kind of
instruction they're giving what do I want to do that for right and I like to think I have a lot
more to offer you and I could draw from all my practical experience which they don't have so

(53:02):
that that's I want you to think about this don't be a copycat really don't that's what this whole
talk is about MVPs it doesn't need to be perfect it needs to be breathing what are MVPs minimum
viable products or minimum viable prototypes when I said I want to offer a complete job searching

(53:23):
program what's a minimum viable product well if it's going to be a complete program it needs
starting in the right place writing a resume job searching interviewing and salary negotiation
minimum viable product now what is it have has a career changer module has an Executives module
has a LinkedIn module has a salary negotiation Workshop has all of these detailed Point Solutions

(53:44):
it's a huge Universe has online support has I didn't have all that in version one or two but
you get in motion and then you work it and then you iterate and then you keep getting better and
what do a lot of perfectionists do they hem they Haw they wait they never release it out into the
wild and therefore they don't add value I'm not saying I want you to be Reckless I said minimum

(54:10):
viable product minimum viable product every week when I show up on Thursday you get a minimum
viable talk and that minimum viable I could give you a talk for 5 hours but we don't want to do
that right cuz you don't have five hours you want to spend with me or you get tired of listening to
me or it's just a lot of information great okay well I could script it all out and I could give

(54:32):
them everything that's in my heart and I could give them everything they need well no that's
not that that's not going to be as effective give them a minimum viable product and show up every
week and talk to them that's better then evaluate yourself every time and get better so whatever it
is you're building the spreadsheet uh I told this story about how I developed a an estimating model

(54:56):
so that in my for one of the consulting firms that I was was um working for they they were a
hot mess as far as running projects they hired me to basically clean up the mess and teach them how
to develop accounts and run projects and do those kind of things so I built a tool it estimated
projects it estimated projects very nicely all different kind of IT projects then they told me we

(55:18):
need the tool to estimate the project within one day for people who don't understand the technology
have never used it and so basically people are going to go out and talk to prospective clients
not really knowing these new technologies that are so new no one really has experience we need you to
build us a tool where we can give them a fixed a fixed estimate and stick to it with a one with a

(55:40):
bunch of zeros after it and it needs to be within 10% accuracy like are you kidding me okay well I
iterated that then what well listen well I don't want the project managers to have to work too hard
the account Partners don't have to work too hard I gave them the tool all they have to do is ask
the questions hit the button it gives them what they need let's do that for the project managers
too okay now all the staff has laid out project managers don't even need to plan their projects

(56:02):
you just hit a button Andy runs a macro and bang it's done well all that didn't happen overnight
but I created a minimum viable product that we then got better and better and better and then
within 6 months we had something quite elegant it's the same thing for you get it up get it
moving get it working and get real live feedback on it so the big difference between somebody who's

(56:22):
willing to iterate in an agile form right where you get it up and running right away and working
living breathing and even if it's not perfect what that person is able to do is iterate based
on practical use the perfectionist that wants to take 6 months or a year before they're able to
let go of whatever it is they're building their version 1.0 is 12 months in the agile person the

(56:50):
person who's creating MVPs who got it up running living breathing is on version 12 but version 12
of practical use their customers are giving them feedback or their Alpha group or beta group or
gamma group or whoever it is is telling them let's do this let's not do that take this out add this
in and they're doing it and they're doing it and they're doing it this is the key to the world and

(57:15):
the world has is in today's today's world 2024 is so much more forgiving than it was in 1988
when I started it needed to be much more perfect everything needed to be buttoned up the tie needed
to be all the way up as if it was strangling me it's different today get stuff moving get stuff

(57:36):
moving and 10 but not last uh metrics you have to have a way to gauge so one of the things that
I want you to to try to do as much as possible I know some of you will ignore me actually the
majority of you are going to ignore me on this but I'm going to say it anyway because I care

(57:56):
about you that much I would really try to get away from outcome based goals how fast am I going to
run the marathon have you ever run one before have you ever run one in heat and on the Hills
right what makes you think you're going to run it in 3 hours and 30 minutes when you've never run
one or never run one on Heaton Hills or whatever it might be maybe you wake up and you didn't get

(58:17):
a good night's sleep that day and you feel like poo poo so what a lot of people do is they say
okay I'm going to crank up this online product and since I'm Andy and and I'm really good at
recruiting and I was really a good consultant and i' i' I've spent 15 or 16 months helping people
understand that I'm really good at job searching too and we do some Live Events and I got my weekly

(58:40):
blog and the podcast going and I sound like I know what I'm talking about and I just think you know
maybe 500 people should should buy this product but when only 50 people do why would I ever set
expectations that I needed to gain a certain amount of Revenue with my first product release
but that's what people do and then what they say is well only 50 people bought it so I must really

(59:00):
stink when the fact of the matter is that there are so many other things that contribute to your
ability to sell a product which you don't control you can influence right I can I can show up I can
teach I can show you my style I can show you what's in the product more importantly I need
to show you how you're going to transform but was I clear were the benefits clear were the

(59:21):
features clear was the messaging clear did I make them easy did I make it easy for them to sign up
was I was I was I there to answer their questions did I answer the frequently asked questions when
they signed up did I give them a good welcome message and so on and so forth and then instead
I looked at okay first goal launch the damn product okay check get someone to buy it just

(59:45):
get someone to buy it okay check make sure like you you you you service it effectively make sure
you're available to answer their questions right like all all of those things were my metrics to
know if I had a first successful launch and guess what here we are on launch number 100 or whatever

(01:00:06):
number it is of whatever product or service I sell and I still do the same thing I I have not
one time set an outcome goal anything related to what's the revenue we need to generate as
a result of this party ever we don't do that we look at things we AB absolutely 100% can control

(01:00:28):
and then I ask myself the other questions and then what happens is when I become laser focused on the
stepping stone goals the ones that are 100% within my control which are are explicitly highlighted in
the metrics that I'm going to site then I get better then I notice the revenue increase then
I notice the level of Engagement increase in the chat everything you all say in any given show on

(01:00:54):
any given Thursday or any any given multi live Day event I I read every single chat you write
in there I know who says what I get to know your personalities because I watch it I watched the
other days twice twice for stuff and I love how supportive you were of each other you add great
questions uh I look at it and I see oh I didn't get a chance to answer that question I need to

(01:01:18):
make sure I answer that Thursday or something like that like get in control of these metrics
and make the metrics about things you can control and in the zebra code I literally
listed out the best metrics and the questions to ask yourself to surface the best metrics so
that you don't you don't misconstrue your level of progress right so when when I look at I launched a

(01:01:43):
product I could have been looking at well not as many people bought it as I had hoped or I could
have been looking at check you did it you did it for the first time ever it was a success 50 people
bought it now you got to serve those people oh you get an opportunity to look at data now
now you can see how many people visited the page how many people engaged in that how many people

(01:02:08):
asked you questions how many people showed you buying signals what percentage of them purchased
what what could I have done to better or be more clear about that so metrics are really this is
a big big deal this is going to this is going to set you sideways if you're not in order and then
the last thing is and part of the metrics is reflecting use the metrics preferably otherwise

(01:02:33):
you won't see how awesome you are and what do I always say no matter who you are or how successful
you are you will never feel successful unless you reflect why can I get a hey or an amen on a
Thursday for what I'm about to say all of you that are here believe it or not have some type A blood

(01:02:55):
in you not not a not a like anti I'm talking about not a a blood I'm talking about you are a type a
person because you wouldn't still be sitting here listening to me it's 71 minutes in if you weren't
and what those people like yourselves and this guy what we tend to do is what look at where we are

(01:03:16):
not I'm not there yet how much further do I need to go well if you don't take a moment to evaluate
on a daily weekly monthly quarterly and annual basis all that you have accomplished you will
never know how far you've come ever so when I look at now there's ways to do that I could look at my

(01:03:39):
first video put it side by side with today's that's one way I could look at that chat you
know you know I had live shows where like six people came one of them was my mom one of them
was Cara one of them was one of my other staff there was me and I think two people I didn't know
two people showed up that didn't know me that was a start and so I have to think about like

(01:04:02):
today I got to teach again I got to there might be people here who were here for the very first
time who never saw anything from me I don't ever want I don't want this to be if this is the only
thing they see from me how will they feel and you've got to you've got to have a map in order
the right questions to ask yourself you have to have a map where where you're going so you

(01:04:26):
know that grid I told you job search curriculum leadership curriculum whatever well that's a map
well I keep putting pieces in in there I started out I had a three-part video series that was how I
sold my first my my first online coaching product online training product for job searching and I

(01:04:48):
made a bunch of mistakes the title of the program the facilitation and those kind of things but but
thought about what went well what did I learn what might I improve this is all
the part of the reflection and again going back to what I said earlier experience is
not what happens to you it's the meaning you attach to what happens to you and that meaning

(01:05:10):
can change over time just make sure you're speaking kind words to yourself going back to
this I genuinely believe this part here the framing the story you tell yourself the middle
piece this will keep you sane or make you go crazy if you are not constantly understanding that life

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happens for you not to you what just happened how did I benefit that's a question why is it
not why me what can I do with this right now why would something like that happen what can I what
can I extract from that it's come full circle all right to run run through this real quick attitude

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is everything think about this this three-pronged effect identify the right capabilities these are
the foundational skills that is the zebra code is a is a wonderful example of 15 of
those capabilities that you need to be able to do a lot of the functions that many of you have

(01:06:16):
get the right stable of teachers in there and I didn't go to the first second like first degree
second degree and tertiary levels of teachers but if you if you have the master your craft in
the leadership program I go into that practice perfectly and progressively be consistent show
up the same way get the right kind of tools but don't go overspend initially make sure you're

(01:06:40):
networking based on where you want to go based on where you want to go make sure you're listening
to your customers or the people you serve your customer could be your teammates your customer
could be your community your customer could be your boss your customer could be your management
team create MVPs metrics and make sure no matter what you're reflecting very frequently all right

(01:07:03):
I hope you enjoyed that portion of this if you did click the like button share this party people
need help and um if you haven't grabbed it well yours will say master your your craft or master
your trade but grab this booklet it's got the it's got the 10day or 10 week challenge in it