January 26, 2024 • 55 mins
Have you ever stood at a career crossroads, the daunting unknown stretching out before you?
Buckle up as we journey with Lora Poepping, the transformation guru and president of Plum Coaching and Consulting. She shares the crossroad moment that pivoted her from being laid off at Microsoft to lighting the way for others navigating career turbulence. In an episode rich with wisdom, Lora recounts how she harnessed her communications and HR expertise to create a beacon of hope for job seekers during economic downturns, offering support in turning adversities into opportunities.
Transitioning from being a cog in the corporate machine to the captain of your own ship is no small feat. Through our intimate discussion, we unearth the emotional weight of such a shift and the resiliency needed to rebuild one's self-confidence brick by brick. We explore how coaching can be a powerful catalyst in transforming professional setbacks into comebacks.
Closing out the episode, we bask in the human connections that underpin Lora's brand ethos and the tailored career guidance she provides. She unearths the secrets to making LinkedIn work for you, and we celebrate the power of a Plum job is not just a career but in crafting a life filled with happiness and fulfilment.
Join us for a conversation that could potentially change your life.
Connect With Lora:
Website: https://www.plumseattle .com
Stay Connected with Maureen:
Mindsight Store: https://www.mindsightstore.com
Website: https://www.maureenchiana.com
Academy: https://www.themindsightacademy.com/
Christian Women’s Leaders Guide on Decision-Making: https://www.maureenchiana.uk/christianfemaleguide
Mindsight Women's Network: https://bit.ly/3qvAzg1
Articles on Brainz: https://bit.ly/brainz-dig
Book A Consultation: https://calendly.com/maureen-77/30min
Thank you for tuning in! If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to hit 'Subscribe' to stay updated on future conversations.
For more insights and connections, follow me on LinkedIn, and don't miss out on our exclusive merchandise designed to inspire and rewire at our Online Shop.
Elevate your journey with our courses at the Website and Online Academy.
Stay curious and empowered!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
You're tuning into the Lead toExcel podcast, the hub where
science meets leadership andtransformation begins.
I'm your host Morinciana,founder of the Mindsite Academy,
a trailblazer in the world ofneuro-leadership, I'm an
(00:21):
executive neuro-coach,leadership transformer and a
neuroscience enthusiast,dedicated to empowering leaders,
entrepreneurs and changemakerslike you.
Every week, we delve into theheart of neuroscience to
discover how you can unleashyour potential, master your
(00:42):
brain, manage emotions in yoursand others, alter behaviors and
exceed expectations.
We're here to help you not justto survive, but thrive and
flourish in the fast-paced worldaround us.
It's time to elevate yourleadership, to excel, and so
(01:03):
hire, let's dive right in.
Oh my gosh, I am absolutelyexcited to be back with another
episode and I have, oh wow, afabulous, amazing lady, laura
Pepin.
It's so good to have you onthis podcast.
If you know how long I've beensaying to myself get in touch
(01:27):
with Laura, she needs to be onthe Lead to Excel podcast.
You won't believe it.
Thank you for saying yesimmediately and thank you for
being here today.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Oh my gosh, morinciana.
Well, we've known each other alittle while now.
We met through Elevate, awomen's organization, that's
right, and I think in our veryfirst Elevate meeting where you
were on it, we were like, let'slook at each other.
We were looking at each otherlike we need to get to know each
other and I think weimmediately set up a date to
(01:56):
connect, because I'm in Seattleand you're in Great Britain and
we just felt a connection, itjust felt right and I'm so
delighted to be on your podcastand I've been a listener and I
feel a little awkward aboutbeing on it, because I love
being a listener, but it is sucha privilege to be with you.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Oh, I'm so pleased you're here and I'm just going
to introduce Laura briefly andthen we will get chatting.
So Laura is the president ofPlum Coaching and Consulting, a
firm that provides job searchand career coaching, hr
consulting, career transitionguidance and LinkedIn expertise
(02:41):
throughout the US and abroad.
It's so good to have you here,laura, and I'm just going to
start this conversation bysaying how did you get to
starting Plum Coaching and HRconsulting?
Because I know previously youworked with Microsoft for a few
(03:01):
years.
So if you kind of just take usback to early days of Laura's
career and how you, what madeyou?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
set it up.
Well, thank you for asking.
You know, not very many timesin our lives do we get to just
really tell our story, and I tryand tell it as succinctly as I
can.
So let me know if you want meto go a little bit deeper.
I started my career in doingcommunications work for National
(03:31):
Public Radio, so I actuallythought that was going to be my
career path.
And then I accidentally,without getting into too many
details, went into highereducation administration and I
thought that was going to be mycareer path and I got a master's
degree from Indiana Universitywhere, if you're outside the US,
(03:52):
Indiana University is inBloomington, Indiana, one of the
middle states in the UnitedStates, and if you're from the
United States and you're fromthe Midwest, you're rolling your
eyes right now, but it is whereI met my now husband, so I have
a lot of good feelings aboutIndiana, or what's called IU.
After that, I ended up workingfor the Smithsonian Institution,
(04:16):
which a lot of people havevisited in the United States and
Washington DC, and thentransitioned back into higher
education when I moved to becloser to my then boyfriend,
Scott, who I'm married to nowfor 33 years.
Crazy, I got married when I was10.
(04:38):
I ended up moving back to theBay Area, which is where I'm
originally San Francisco BayArea, which is where I'm
originally from and my husbandsaid to me you know, higher
education doesn't pay that well.
It's a very wonderful career,but have you ever thought about
transitioning to business?
(05:00):
And I ended up moving intorecruiting and I started my
career in recruiting forDeloitte and spent 13 years with
Deloitte, had an amazing careerin San Francisco, in the Bay
Area, in the San Francisco BayArea, and then moved on and did
a year withPricewaterhouseCoopers, which is
(05:23):
another accounting firm well,well-known accounting firm.
When my husband got a job offerin Seattle, we and our one at
that time less than one year olddaughter moved up to Seattle
and I started a career doingrecruiting for Microsoft, which
is a small software company thatsome people may have thought of
(05:45):
, may have heard of, and I endedup in at Microsoft, also for 13
years.
I had an amazing career thereand doing recruiting and human
resources and executiveonboarding and a number of other
things in diversity andinclusion work.
And this is where the big pivottakes place and this is a pivot
(06:08):
that so many of your listenerswill really understand.
So I promise that this storygoes somewhere.
So in 2008, when the economytook a very significant hit,
3,500 of my closest friends atMicrosoft and I were laid off.
And when I was laid off, Iended up using the connections.
(06:30):
I had to do some contract work,when a lot of people do that,
and during the time I was doingcontract work for a few years, I
ended up doing something thatmakes perfect sense now to me,
which is a lot of people said oh, you were a recruiter, I'm
trying to look for a job.
I don't know how to find a job.
(06:51):
Can you advise me on what I'mdoing wrong?
And so I would treat people tocoffee.
That's when Starbucks stockstarted going up because I was
treating to so many coffees forfree, Because if you're out of a
job, you can't ask someone tomeet with you and not treat them
to coffee.
So I would treat them to coffeeand they would get jobs.
(07:14):
And I was having lunch I thinkit was happy hour so we were
having cocktails with a dearfriend of mine, Mary Beth mains,
and Mary Beth was asking mewhat did I think I wanted to do
next, Because she would justfinished up her coaching
certification.
So, as all good coaches,they're trying all this coaching
skills out on their friends.
(07:35):
And so she asked me what I wantto do and I said well, Mary
Beth, one of the things I reallyenjoy is I really enjoy
coaching people on their jobsearch, taking what I know about
how people are hired from myyears at Deloitte, Price,
Butterhouse and Microsoft andsome startups, and telling them
(07:56):
how to execute a job searchthat's thoughtful, strategic,
impactful, and I really enjoy it.
And she said, well, why don'tyou monetize it?
And I said, oh, Mary Beth,bless your heart.
As they say in the UnitedStates South, that's a favor,
(08:16):
not a business.
And she said, well, why not?
And that was here's our number13.
Again 13 years ago, Maureen, Istarted PLUM as a job search
coach serving women and recentcollege graduates, and 13 years
later, I've got a team of almost20 coaches, HR consultants,
(08:37):
resume writers and careercoaches.
So I do very little careercoach or very little coaching
these days.
I'm actually running thepractice.
So very long story.
But what I really wanna drivehome is that life is a
circuitous route for many of us.
And here I am.
(08:59):
Who would have thought that I'dend up going from thinking I'd
be having a career in nationalpublic radio all the way to now
running a practice here inSeattle for 13 years Of 13 years
.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
That's incredible.
That's amazing.
I was actually going to ask you, when you were treating these
ladies to coffee, were youcharging them?
But it looks like you were notcharging.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
No, I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
No, I was losing.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I was losing many because I was treating to some
pretty expensive lattes Exactly,and not to diminish the value
of a good Starbucks latte.
But when people ask you for afavor and they're out of work or
they're looking for work, youdon't feel like you can ask them
to treat it, Even if you'redoing them a favor Interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
So I was doing you a great job, yeah right, okay, and
then you then turned this intoa business.
How was it, in terms of notmaking that shift to making a
business, that you were charging?
How did you feel also about thecharging, because that is one
(10:08):
area lots of women in particularstruggle with the pricing, with
how to charge people Because,like you said, they're out of
work anyway.
So how does a lot of them areprobably out of work, so how did
you navigate that?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Well, that is a great question, because I was not.
I didn't consider myself abusiness person or an
entrepreneur.
I'd always worked for bigcorporations.
I thought it was a totalcorporate gal and when I started
my practice, I was really doingit blindly.
And I started with only 1500 USdollars to get it started, to
(10:46):
start a very simple website andmy marketing was just emailing
all my friends and I'm tellingthem what I was doing.
The pricing was one of the mostdifficult things because,
understandably, people do notlike to share or be transparent
about what they're charging.
(11:07):
If they have their own practiceand I understand that, I
totally understand that it'sproprietary and it feels awkward
.
And women, a lot of women, aregonna really understand this.
Women really don't like to talkabout money very much and we're
very generous.
I hate to be.
I hate to make a blanketstatement.
(11:28):
Not everyone is generous, butmany women I've met are,
especially when they'relaunching their practice.
So I had to really do it by feelat the beginning and after a
couple of years I realized thatwhile I was married to my
husband, who has an MBA, Ireally wanted to separate church
and state.
I really wanted to just bemarried to my husband and not
(11:51):
have him advise me.
And so I hired a business coach, and this business coach,
lenora Edwards, gave me suchgood guidance, and one of the
very first things she said to meis stop thinking of yourself as
a coach and start thinking ofyourself as being a business
person who is all about makingmoney, not in a money-grubbing
(12:16):
way.
But you gotta do things and setup strategies as a business.
Hire an admin, hire abookkeeper, get on it to really
get focused around what yourprofit and loss statement looks
like.
Get serious, laura, becausethis is important to sustain a
(12:37):
business.
And so that's how I finally gotserious and realized this isn't
just about coaching.
It's about actually building abusiness and building a brand.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Oh wow, Thanks for going into that, because that is
an area, like we said, manypeople struggle with, so I'm
gonna push you a bit here when Iknow I know Lenora.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I'm not being serious , you know me.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I know Lenora so, and she's amazing.
How was it when she wascoaching you from your own
perspective in terms of okay,I'm now moving from this being
from me being a coach, becauseyou see, the mindset of being a
coach is really different fromthe mindset of being a business
(13:29):
person how was that for you?
What struggles did you come upagainst in terms of your thought
process, and how did she helpyou navigate that?
Or was it something you wereable to navigate yourself?
Mm-hmm?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
well.
I love that.
Lenora really helped me,accountable, and she said do you
want this business to be robustand continue and continue
serving people?
If that's the case, she wasreally good.
She's like stop doing free onehour pre-calls, stop that, stop
(14:08):
doing this or do this.
And I just needed that guidance.
It's like hiring I even usethis analogy for myself.
It's like hiring a personaltrainer.
You know that you're supposedto lift weights to get stronger
and healthier and better andstrengthen your core so you
don't fall down right.
(14:29):
So you hire a coach to get youto that point.
And so I welcomed the guidance.
I wanted that advice and I alsoand I think your question
addresses this I also had to goto a place of discomfort because
my generous spirit wanted togive a lot away for free and
(14:52):
that was not sustainable and Ihad to come to terms with that.
And there's this kind of thismoment where you're saying I
really want to be nice, but it'snot in service to me and it's
not in service to my clients andit's not in service to people
who work with me because theyneed my attention and I'm
spending all this time doingthis free work.
(15:15):
I'm doing air quotes on thatfor all your listeners.
It's just not serving meanymore.
So I had to push myself to beI'm not saying less nice, but
just getting more business-likein how I operate it.
That is a pivot for sure,that's great.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
That's great.
And I love the fact that sheasked you the question what do
you want?
What do you have?
Do you want we had you see thebusiness?
And I think that is soimportant because that question
almost like makes you dream orhave a vision of what you really
want.
And even when you know thestruggle comes, or you know that
(15:57):
you know I need to be nice.
These people don't have a job.
They, you know I need to helpthem, I need to give things away
.
It brings you back to what'sthe vision what do you want to
do?
I love that.
So thanks so much for sharingthat.
So now the business is nowgrowing and I want us to kind of
go into you know what you'vediscovered over time, the
(16:21):
struggles or challenges you knowcan give us a case study,
examples of what, of how you'vereally helped people in terms of
the job search, because surelynow that so many people are,
there's a lot, there'stransition going on.
So how has it been for you?
Because I know your businesshas grown so much in the last
(16:43):
couple of years as well.
How did that happen?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
And, yeah, Well, two things and thank you for asking
that question.
Two things my own strugglesaround being laid off after
really devoting myself to manyyears at Microsoft and feeling
really committed to it andwaving the banner for a company
and feeling really discouragedthat they would not see me as an
(17:11):
individual who had a value bystaying at the company.
There was a lot of hit to myego, understandably, but the
gift of that was that I reallyunderstand that experience in a
very personal way.
So it enhanced my coaching.
It made me a better coach,because there's nothing that
(17:35):
makes you a better practitionerthan having been through
something yourself.
So when we do out placementwork, which is where companies
are letting go of some of theiremployees and as an act of
generosity, even though they'reletting someone go, they will
pay for plum to do coaching fortheir employees, and we do it
(17:56):
for some really amazingcompanies around the United
States.
And when I do an intake callwith a prospective client who's
been affected by a layoff,whether it be for out placement
work or someone who's just foundus via a search or a referral,
I come from a place of.
(18:17):
I feel you.
I've been there.
I knocked on my friendMichelle's door and cried on her
doorstep and said I can'tbelieve what this meant to be.
But I also believe that here Iam, on the other side of that
journey and I can speak and holdup the message that there is
(18:39):
light at the end of the tunnel.
Maybe not tomorrow, maybe notnext year, but there is that
light.
So the struggle for me wasreally losing what I thought was
my identity as a corporateperson and moving into being an
entrepreneur, which reallypushed me in a new and different
way.
As far as the clientsthemselves and coaching people,
(19:05):
I think what has been mostvaluable in all the work that I
have done as a coach and I thinkmy coaches on my team would
agree with me that being witnessto someone's pain and someone's
frustration and someone'sdisappointment is part of the
work in itself.
(19:25):
You, as someone who manages,who works with people and
coaches about what the braindoes in terms of the way we
perceive things and the way wereact to things, can really
appreciate that there's aprocess of sadness and
(19:47):
disappointment and you have tobe there and be there for that,
to get them to the other side,to where they really finally can
open themselves up to the ideathat they have a value and our
works show that value to theclient and get them through to
that other side.
So, just talking about pain andtransition, I think those two
(20:10):
things my own transition informsmy own coaching, not to jump
ahead, but as far as being abusiness person.
What that really did for me,however, is really opened my
eyes to thinking I'm a coach.
I thought I was a coach, butwhat I really realized is that
(20:34):
I'm a business developmentperson.
I love building brand andbuilding business and creating
opportunity for people on myteam to do the work of coaching
or HR work, and so I've pivotedyet again from not that I don't
coach I still have a fewcoaching clients but I have
(20:57):
pivoted more towards leaninginto running the practice and
growing it and coming up withbusiness development strategy
than almost anything else.
So there's lots of light at theend of this tunnel.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Oh wow, I love that.
I want to go back and then comeforward.
You touched on you losing yourown identity when you were
pivoting, when you were maderedundant and you then became a
business person.
And identity is a big thing aswell for people who lose their
(21:32):
jobs or who are searching,especially if they've been
searching for a long time orthey've been told that they're
going to be made redundant.
How does plum coaching helpthem navigate through that?
Because I know you've touchedon the pain, but identity is a
big one as well.
So how does that play out andhow do you work them through it?
(21:57):
And you can give us an examplehow that then changed into
somebody?
Because you see, with theidentity, it also impacts on
confidence and that will impacton interview and all that.
So, yeah, if you can just touchon that a bit, Well, I can only
(22:17):
speak to my own coaching.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
I think my coaches, if they were listening this,
would say oh well, that'sinteresting that you do it that
way, but I do it a different way, so I'm just going to speak for
myself.
The first thing I talk about ismy own journey with clients,
about how I Microsoft broke upwith me and, by the way, I have
a great relationship withMicrosoft.
I was the big I noticed.
(22:40):
I was just at a big Microsoftalumni conference presented
about LinkedIn, which is totallymy jam.
So I want to be very clear thatyou know Microsoft's my
ex-boyfriend or my ex-partner,but we're on good terms.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
So I first talked about how.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I'm a company.
When they let someone go, ittook me a while to realize that
Microsoft was not my spouse, notmy partner, not my bestie.
Microsoft was a company andtheir intention is to make money
and they have to run theirpractice and they run their
business in the way that's goingto optimize their return on
(23:21):
investment and their return totheir shareholders.
So the first is recognizing myown experience and sharing that
with them.
It doesn't mean it always landsat that moment, because there
is grief and there is, and Iunderstand that.
The other thing is I reallydrive home the point that in
order to be considered a strongcandidate, you have to show up
(23:44):
as a solution to somebody'sproblem.
And if you go into this workwithout regaining your
confidence which we work on andI'll explain how without
regaining your confidence, youjust show up as another problem.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
So the most important thing, the most important work
that I want to work on withclients right away, is building
their confidence.
And usually when I say to thesay, to the client sitting
across from me or across from meon the screen, I say you've
hired right, and most of themhave.
And I say, well, when you'vehired, if someone comes in and
(24:23):
they just seem depleted and sadand frustrated and are you going
to hire them, is that theperson you?
Speaker 1 (24:31):
want to bring on to your team.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Right, and they usually go, of course not.
So I say so our work togetheris to make sure you find out
what makes Maureen such a greatresource to somebody.
So let's discover that togetherand we do a series of work
exercises that get them tounderstand that there are.
(24:55):
I'm using my fingers here tocreate a Venn diagram for your
listeners not people who arewatching, but a Venn diagram is
in my mind that works for ourcoaching Is there?
The job is one circle, theclient is the other circle and
the overlap is telling thatstory of where they add value.
(25:15):
So they have to have a reallybuttoned up, clean, crisp,
articulate story that tells theemployer, the hiring manager,
the recruiter, their friends,even where that overlap exists
and what those experiences are.
So that's part of the work thatwe do.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
That's powerful.
That's really powerful.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
I don't know what that's powerful, is changing
someone's brain.
Honestly, Maureen, but I'll gowith it.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
That's what you're doing.
You're literally changing theirbrain.
That's what you're doing,because they've come in, like
you said, with that wholebaggage and what you're doing is
helping them rewire their brainto focus on themselves and the
value that they bring.
So that's it.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Oh, okay, well, I will take it.
I'm ready to be a brain expert.
Absolutely, I'll let you dothat.
I'm going to leave that firmlyin your court.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
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(26:30):
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(26:50):
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Let's jump right back in intoour conversation.
That's great Now.
(27:10):
So, coming back to where youare with Plum now in terms of
what you do, I want you to kindof go into a bit more detail
about your role now in Plum interms of the business strategy
bit and what you're doing withLinkedIn as well, and the
branding.
Is it personal branding thatyou focus on or is it branding
(27:33):
in terms of organizationalbranding?
Speaker 2 (27:37):
That's another interesting tipping point.
When I was working with Lenora,my business coach as well as a
personal coach that I had, whatI realized is I really wanted to
make sure that I was creatingopportunities for the coaches
that worked with me, and if thebrand was Laura, laura, laura,
(28:02):
people would only want to workwith Laura, which would not
necessarily serve me and was noteffective.
To scale my practice, I neededother people to do the work as
well and, of course, I wouldmake money off of that.
I'm not being shy about thatanymore and, by the way, I'm
very transparent with my teamabout the delta between what I
(28:25):
pay them and what I charge theclient so that it never catches
them off guard, and I think it'sreally empowering to own that
message.
But what I realized is that Idid go away from Laura being the
brand.
I could be the evangelist forthe brand.
(28:47):
I could be the spokesperson forthe brand, just like anyone who
hires a spokesperson.
Nike has spokespeople lots ofgreat athletes and almost every
big company has them.
But I wanted to pivot away fromthat and more towards plum as
the brand, and plum also hadmultiple offerings.
(29:10):
It had job search, coaching,career coaching, resume writing
LinkedIn profiles and HR humanresources for small to medium
sized business.
Well, I don't do all that work,so it didn't serve me to be the
brand anymore, so I pivotedaway from that and now, even
(29:30):
when people email me and say, oh, I want to introduce you to my
friend, you might eat somecoaching my responses always
thank you for entrusting yourreferrals to me slash plum.
Because I may not be theircoach, I may not be the resource
that they, that they lean intoor lean on when they're doing
(29:52):
the work.
But I really had to get morefocused on branding for plum and
I made significant investmentsin plum as a brand.
I want plum to outlive me.
I'm not outlive me.
I don't want to die really fast, I know, but it's good and,
(30:14):
based on what I hear from themarket here in Seattle and other
parts of the country amongother companies, people could
care less than Laura Peppin runsplum.
They just want to make sureplum exists.
So that is a sign of successthat it's about plum and not
(30:34):
about me and, by the way, thatfrees me up to just be Laura,
exactly Maureen just to connectwith other women through LA and
IWF and other organizations thatI belong to.
That's great.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
So, in terms of that transition, though, how was it
Because I think this is where alot of people struggle of
letting go, shelly, when youstart bringing people in how did
you find it to actually standback and let other people make
(31:11):
some decisions that you wouldhave made?
Because, like you said, the wayto scale is to do it, but doing
it can be quite challenging fora lot of CEOs or business
owners or founders, so how didyou navigate that?
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Well, I have to say I have an unfair advantage in
that I was a recruiter for over20 years I wanted to cover up
that number but actually wascloser to 25 years.
So I had done so much hiringand so much discernment work
around evaluating candidatesthat I was able, when I was
(31:51):
bringing people on number one, Iwas able to dive deep into
questions that would get me tothe answers surrounding their
commitment, their interests, etc.
The other thing is I reallytrusted my gut, and I know
(32:11):
that's not scientific, but Iknow it is.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Oh, it is.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Oh good, oh good.
Well then see, I'm closer tobeing a brain expert than I
thought.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
I said it, you are.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Thank you Is that I knew so many people, having
worked for Microsoft for so long.
I had colleagues at Microsoftthat I knew their work and when
they approached me, it wasn'tall Microsoft colleagues.
By the way, there might be somepeople listening to this, go,
(32:45):
wait a minute.
She didn't ask me to join Plum.
Well, I think my intuition wastelling me this person will be
great with clients.
I would trust this person.
They're a grownup and they'regoing to do the right thing.
They're going to represent mybrand.
So I have people on the teamthat, even beyond Microsoft,
there's a woman on my team,lynette, who I met through a
(33:09):
dear friend of mine, who was theCEO of a company and Lynette
was our head of HR and I metLynette through.
That was some contract work Ihad done with my friends company
and I really liked Lynette andI said I think she absolutely
would be an amazing addition tothe team and I reached out to
her and other people hadreferred people to me and I
(33:34):
always went into thoseconversations going would I feel
comfortable sending them in asmy proxy?
Actually, one of my favoritestories is I subjected myself to
a 16 weeks worth of 6am bootcamp.
Why did that.
Now I look back on it and go,oh my gosh, but the universe was
(33:57):
directing me towards Kelly, whowas my boot camp instructor and
she was amazing.
She taught kickboxing.
I felt so strong and so amazingas a woman able to take on the
world, at least the punching bag.
And I met Kelly and through 16weeks I went.
I know there's more to thiswoman than being a kickboxing
(34:19):
coach.
I went out to coffee and shetold me the story that she had
worked for Nike, adidas,converse, amazon.
She had been a sales leader, abusiness development person, and
she was a coach not justkickboxing coach, but a coach
coach.
And I went oh my gosh, kelly, Ineed a career transition coach
(34:43):
on my team.
Would you be interested?
So placing trust in people thatyou develop relationships with,
as crazy as it may seem, akickboxing coach or someone you
met.
So I trusted my gut about that.
I brought people on that I knewcould do the work.
But there are other people thatwere not my kickboxing coach or
(35:03):
not people, I admit, in otherways and I felt that my
discerning eye and the way thatI connected with people would
give me guidance.
And so I would say to yourlisteners who are trying to
decide whether they want toscale and add people, I would
say could you envision thisperson as your proxy, maybe
(35:28):
doing the work differently, butstill showing up in a way that
clients are going to email youand say thank you so much for
connecting me with Maureen she'sterrific.
Or Kelly or Lynette or Holly orDeanna or Nicole all the people
on my team or Lane, I got tothrow in Lane, and Matt, I got
to throw in.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah, no, but that's fantastic, and I like the fact
that you said they might do itdifferently, and that's the key
they don't have to do it likeyou.
It's accepting the fact thatthey might do it differently but
still get the results that areneeded.
And have you had anydisappointments or challenges
with people you've brought in,and if you just give us an
(36:11):
example of that and how that wasresolved?
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Well, I'm going to give you two examples, because
one is heartbreak that is goodand one is heartbreak that is
not so good.
So let me just assure all yourlisteners that you never get it
100% right.
It just I mean, I'm in that,was a recruiter for 25 years.
I still have made bad or I'mgoing to say decisions that did
(36:40):
not serve me and for variousreasons, people can leave or
they're not the right fit, andyou won't know that until
they're in role in place, andthat's just the reality of it.
So, you have to be ready for itand it may happen on your very
first person.
You bring on and that's okay.
(37:00):
Don't get, don't don't bediscouraged, keep trying.
Exactly the first heartbreak issomething that I think is is a
positive, and that is for sixyears.
I think it was six years.
Andy was one of my resumewriters and she worked with me
and a situation and clientsloved her and I love her and
(37:23):
we're still connected and we'restill friends and I, of course,
wish her well.
But after six years, situationchanged and she needed to leave
Plum, and I would be a hypocriteif I did not encourage people
on my team to go pursue what isright for them, what's right for
their family, what's right forthem, what's right for their
(37:44):
growth.
So, with my well wishes, butsincere disappointment for
missing out on her skills andtalents and gifts.
I wish her well and she left.
So that happens and you have tobe ready for that.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
People need to spread their wings, for whatever
reason.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
So, andy, I still miss you, but I also wish you
well, and you know I do, and she, by the way, has stepped up and
interviewed candidates for mehere at.
Plum because she is so she's sogreat about wanting Plum to be
successful and for me to besuccessful.
(38:23):
Social step up to support me.
That's special.
That's special Even today, Onthe not so good side, there have
been situations where I haveinvested my time and my
resources to bring someone ontrain them, and they really are
not the right fit.
(38:44):
I can feel that the clientfeels it.
I won't name anybody becauseit's fair and not right and not
human resources respectful.
But from those experiences, aswe should with all experiences,
I've learned to do things betteror get more buttoned up or be
(39:07):
more discerning or ask the rightquestions, and so I'm always
learning and while I may bedisappointed in the moment, I do
know that every act thathappens in my life is a learning
edge moment, and so I'velearned from that.
So no to your listeners.
(39:28):
You will have your heart broken, you possibly will be
disappointed, but that's justpart of the growth.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, thank you for touching on that, because it's
one I come across a lot.
Oh, but I trained the staff andthen they would leave, and I
love the fact that you've shownhow the key thing is that you're
learning consistently.
And yes, it's reality, theymight leave, but surely if they
(39:55):
live in good terms, like youdescribed at the beginning, with
Andy, where she's still part ofthe business in a way kind of
an extension, but also the onesthat don't really work out, it's
okay, you learn from it, youlearn from the experience and
you move on.
So, yeah, thank you so much fortouching on that.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
So, now we're coming.
Oh yeah, I'm sorry, I was goingto add one more thing, a
learning edge moment.
So one of the other things thatI think is a really key thing
when you own your own practiceand I'm sure you're going to nod
your head on video when I saythis the first contract that I
ever use to engage a client isnot even remotely similar to the
(40:37):
contract that I have today,because I learned from every
mistake of people trying to getaround things or missing
something or how we engage withour clients.
You go wait a minute.
Oh my gosh, how did they findthat loophole?
So you fill that loophole onthe next one and then another
(40:57):
client finds another loophole.
So I'm going to say to anyonegoing out there and starting
their own practice just knowthat part of the business side
of it is learning and changingyour contract over time.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Yeah, yeah, thank you for that, and that's so true
and I love it.
I love the fact that you'vereally touched on this, because
people just beat themselves upor end up feeling so bad, oh, I
got it so wrong.
I've done this, there's no need, it's happened.
What do you learn from it?
Learn and grow.
That's the key.
Oh, thank you, thanks so muchfor that.
(41:31):
So, now that we're coming tothe end of the podcast, can you
tell us how listeners that wantto know more about how Plom can
help them?
So the different aspects,because I know they are
different arms of Plom If youcan just touch on them so that
people that want to reach outcan go?
(41:54):
Oh yeah, plom can help me.
I need to speak to someone.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Well, let me just say that, as a business development
person, that question isawesome because this gives me an
opportunity to talk about howpeople can review what we do and
what the different services are.
So the easiest way to just lookus over and check us out is
(42:19):
just go to our website, which isplum, just like the fruit
plumseattlecom.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
And by the way Before you go on, okay, sorry, now I'm
just going to say so why thename Plom?
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Well, I don't know if this is true in other countries
, but in the United States whenyou get a great job, it's called
you get a plum job and that's agreat visual right?
I actually had some plumssitting on my kitchen counter
right now, and when you see aplum it's like a happy fruit.
It's happy, it's approachable,and don't we love that color?
(42:59):
I mean, the color is justbeautiful.
And so in branding andapproachability and all those
things, I just thought that'sreally great and all you have to
say is plum.
Like even in Seattle, people go, oh, I use plum and people go,
oh yeah, I know what plum is.
And that makes me so happybecause it's just one word, it's
so easy.
(43:20):
You don't have to remember likelaurapeppingcom, which is so
terrifically difficult, sopeople can go to plumseattlecom
and on it you'll see two reallybig areas.
One is all things career, whichwould be career coaching,
resume writing, LinkedInprofiles, job search coaching
(43:41):
and out placement.
Well, I don't know if that'sunder out placement, You'd think
I'd know my own website, and sothere's that button.
And then the other one is allthings human resources, all
things HR, and the humanresources side of our practice
serves small to medium sizedbusinesses up and down the US
West Coast, including Alaska.
(44:03):
So for those clients, for thosepeople we're listening in in
other countries, yes, we can dowork in Canada, but we're
probably not going to be aresource for doing work outside
of Canada or the continentalUnited States.
But we have HR consultants.
If you go to plumseattlecom inthe upper right hand corner it
(44:24):
says about us and you'll see allthe folks on my team and you'll
see some of them are HRconsultants.
Only go to their LinkedInprofiles because they're so
accomplished and I love showingthem off.
But you'll also see our coachesand resume writers there as
well.
So you can reach out to us viaour website.
Of course we have a connectwith us or contact us button.
(44:45):
They can connect that way andthen we follow up with a menu of
services which goes intogreater detail about the work
that we do.
But the thing that I cannotgive up, I just refuse, can't
stop, won't stop, Because everyprospective client gets a free
20 minute call with me.
Sorry, Lenora, it's true Istill do our free call, but it's
(45:08):
20 minutes, that's good.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
And that's the personal touches in it.
I love that.
I like that yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Well, again, when you've lost your job or you're
looking for a job or you're inthat state of flux.
You really want a human being,and so, while we are learning
how to use chat GPT in otherways, I promise you chat GPT
does not do our resumes, but wedo play with that.
Chat GPT will never replace theone on one personal experience
(45:45):
that we provide when someonecalls us.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Yeah, that's true and that's powerful.
I think that's really good and,like you said, it's not an
hours 20 minutes and yeah, I'mjust relating.
When people can see where youare, the fact that you've
actually been, you know, youknow what they're going through
because you've been there itmakes so much different.
So I think that's nice.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
That's good.
Well, it does yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, and what about LinkedIn?
What do you do with LinkedIn?
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yes, you asked me about that.
So LinkedIn, because I used itas a recruiter.
I have a Many recruiters outthere not that they're going to
be listening necessarily to apodcast like this, but if
they'll, they'll probably sayyeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a total
LinkedIn jockey.
I know how to use LinkedIn Well, because we know how recruiters
(46:37):
and hiring managers useLinkedIn.
We share that knowledge withour clients, and LinkedIn
workshops are something that Ido I have consistently done over
the last 13 years as Not only away to share that expertise in
a broader way, but it's also abusiness development tool,
because if you can see that Iknow what I'm doing when it
(47:00):
comes to LinkedIn and how tocreate a really strong LinkedIn
profile, they're gonna go ohyeah, she does know what she's
doing.
Or her coaches or resume writers, who also do LinkedIn profiles,
will know as well.
So LinkedIn what's reallyimportant about LinkedIn for
your clients is, or for yourlisteners, is that we really
understand who you are and whatyou do in Approximately six
(47:24):
seconds or less, and so our workis showing you how to make a
LinkedIn profile stand out inthose six seconds, because
that's about all the eyeballtime that's true.
A Recruiter or hiring managergives it when there's, when
there's going through.
If you're, if you're watchingus on this video you don't see
(47:46):
me swiping.
I, like I mentioned I've beenmarried for 30 years.
I don't really know swiping, butI can't tell you from a
recruiting standpoint, not adating standpoint, that
recruiters and hiring managersswipe very quickly.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Yeah, yeah, and they make you know the impression
they did so fast.
You know they look at it, theymake their or they have an
impression of you so quickly, sotrue, so true.
Thank you so much.
I'm going to put all thedetails in the description so
you can click on them Whereveryou listen to this podcast and
(48:22):
you can get in touch with Umplum coaching.
It would be so good.
You know it's been a.
It's been a huge pleasurehaving you on the podcast, Laura
.
How large is your team now?
I know you did say it at thebeginning how large is it 19, 19
people?
Speaker 2 (48:39):
We fluctuate between 20 and probably 18, depending on
whether my heart is broken ornot broken, and so, and uh, yeah
, I just um, I think 20 is asbig as we will ever get, because
I love knowing people on myteam, loving the names of their
kids or what their favoritefoods are, or I like getting
(49:02):
them to know one another, and Ifeel 20 is about all my brain
Maureen can handle.
Thank you so much for giving methis opportunity to spend this
time with you, number one,because I just adore you.
And number two.
I am a listener.
And, uh, finally, because I ama business woman and this is a
(49:24):
great opportunity to share mystory.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
Yeah, I know it's been.
It's fantastic having you, andit's been something I've been
Saying I've got to do, so I'm sopleased with doing it.
It's been a huge pleasurehaving you on.
So before we leave, though, canyou give our listeners a final
word of advice, mainly to people, actually to two groups of
(49:47):
people to entrepreneurs, butalso to those who are searching
for work at the moment?
Speaker 2 (49:55):
To entrepreneurs.
I have um Two bits of advice.
I know you said one, but I'lljust give two.
Number one is I call myself thehuman bumper car.
I try things out.
If it doesn't work, I pull backand I go again.
And I pull back and I goforward.
And you can't take itpersonally.
(50:15):
I there are many things thatI've tried at plum that just
didn't work and it's.
I just can't let it affect myego.
I just try and do somethingelse.
So just know that as anentrepreneur, you're going to
try a bunch of stuff.
It may not work.
Keep trying, but Don't dig inso hard that you think the
market just doesn't understandyou.
(50:36):
The market understands you.
If they want it, they willrespond to it.
So that's the first bit ofadvice to entrepreneurs.
The second bit is listen.
Listen a lot.
Listen to your customers,listen to people you're that
you're getting inputs from.
Really take it to heart,because I can't tell you how
(50:56):
many times People with a firmwill contact me and go I'm going
to be a resource to you, I'mgoing to partner with you, I'm
going to help you.
I'm like how can you do thatwhen you don't even know
anything about me?
Why don't you listen to me?
First have great questions andthen build your message from
listening.
So that's two pieces of adviceto entrepreneurs, the.
(51:19):
The last piece of advice wouldbe to job search and People who
are on the job search, and thatis remember that Just what
marine is talking about yourconfidence and building your
confidence.
It may be from Learning how torun a marathon during the time
(51:40):
of your search.
It may be discovering theskills, gifts and competencies
you can bring to a job.
It may be, um, tacklingsomething you've never done
before, which I did when I wasunemployed I took up archery.
That was a big thing.
So, um, yeah, I need to get mybow back in action.
(52:02):
But Whatever it might be, tobuild your confidence, that is
really the hardest hurdle totackle.
And whatever you can do,whether it be working with
marine, whether it be workingwith a plum Uh, firm like plum
building that confidence isreally key to showing up as a
candidate of choice, and all theother stuff can be taught, but
(52:24):
building the confidence isreally key and critical to doing
this work.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
Rosh Lara.
That's, that's really powerful.
I like what you said.
Building your confidence that's, and the examples you gave is
not even Doing it in the areathat you're looking to work, is
doing something else, and that'sreally that's great.
That's great because that's theeasier way to build the
(52:50):
confidence by doing somethingdifferent.
You know, do something you'venot done before and your brain
then goes Actually I can't dothis.
If I can do this, then I can do.
I can really get back intogetting that job.
I love that.
That's so good, thank you.
Speaker 2 (53:09):
You know a bit more about how the brain is going to
respond than I do, but I, I, Ithink it's working and I will
tell you, as someone who doesarchery, that there's nothing
more confidence building thangetting a bullseye, and then it
has nothing to do with my jobExactly.
Speaker 1 (53:26):
Yeah, no, that's great, that's a good example I
wish you all bullseyes.
Speaker 2 (53:30):
I wish everyone listened to that Exactly.
Go on bullseye.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
Oh, wow, that's, that's, that's great.
And then for the entrepreneurs,you said don't take it
personally and listen, and bothfantastic advice, don't take it
personally is so good.
Listening is, yeah, you know,that is just amazing.
Laura, you are a superstar, youare amazing.
I remember, um, when I met youthis was going back a few years
(53:59):
now and because I've beenposting and you said to me, more
in what you're asked, what areyou asking for?
And I had to step back and thengo oh, actually, it's true I'm
posting but not really askingfor anything, and you pointed it
out to me.
And you know, I just love youso much, you, you know you, the
(54:20):
advice you give, you're just soopen to giving and you care so
much.
I love you, love you, love youloads.
Honestly, I really do, and I'mso pleased I got to meet you,
but I can't wait to you know, Ican't wait to see you get a.
Speaker 2 (54:37):
Laura hog, you know I cannot wait where, whether it's
whether it's, I actually wouldrather come your way than you
come my way.
But you are over in Seattle,always, always, always.
And thank you to your listenersfor making it through what is
hopefully valuable to you.
And also being a fan of Marines, because I'm a fan of Marines
(54:59):
and I want you to, I want tojoin your club of being a fan
out there in the universe.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much, laura.
It's been great having you on.
Thank you once again.
You're welcome.
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
You're tuning into the Lead toExcel podcast, the hub where
science meets leadership andtransformation begins.
I'm your host Morinciana,founder of the Mindsite Academy,
a trailblazer in the world ofneuro-leadership, I'm an
(00:21):
executive neuro-coach,leadership transformer and a
neuroscience enthusiast,dedicated to empowering leaders,
entrepreneurs and changemakerslike you.
Every week, we delve into theheart of neuroscience to
discover how you can unleashyour potential, master your
(00:42):
brain, manage emotions in yoursand others, alter behaviors and
exceed expectations.
We're here to help you not justto survive, but thrive and
flourish in the fast-paced worldaround us.
It's time to elevate yourleadership, to excel, and so
(01:03):
hire, let's dive right in.
Oh my gosh, I am absolutelyexcited to be back with another
episode and I have, oh wow, afabulous, amazing lady, laura
Pepin.
It's so good to have you onthis podcast.
If you know how long I've beensaying to myself get in touch
(01:27):
with Laura, she needs to be onthe Lead to Excel podcast.
You won't believe it.
Thank you for saying yesimmediately and thank you for
being here today.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Oh my gosh, morinciana.
Well, we've known each other alittle while now.
We met through Elevate, awomen's organization, that's
right, and I think in our veryfirst Elevate meeting where you
were on it, we were like, let'slook at each other.
We were looking at each otherlike we need to get to know each
other and I think weimmediately set up a date to
(01:56):
connect, because I'm in Seattleand you're in Great Britain and
we just felt a connection, itjust felt right and I'm so
delighted to be on your podcastand I've been a listener and I
feel a little awkward aboutbeing on it, because I love
being a listener, but it is sucha privilege to be with you.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Oh, I'm so pleased you're here and I'm just going
to introduce Laura briefly andthen we will get chatting.
So Laura is the president ofPlum Coaching and Consulting, a
firm that provides job searchand career coaching, hr
consulting, career transitionguidance and LinkedIn expertise
(02:41):
throughout the US and abroad.
It's so good to have you here,laura, and I'm just going to
start this conversation bysaying how did you get to
starting Plum Coaching and HRconsulting?
Because I know previously youworked with Microsoft for a few
(03:01):
years.
So if you kind of just take usback to early days of Laura's
career and how you, what madeyou?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
set it up.
Well, thank you for asking.
You know, not very many timesin our lives do we get to just
really tell our story, and I tryand tell it as succinctly as I
can.
So let me know if you want meto go a little bit deeper.
I started my career in doingcommunications work for National
(03:31):
Public Radio, so I actuallythought that was going to be my
career path.
And then I accidentally,without getting into too many
details, went into highereducation administration and I
thought that was going to be mycareer path and I got a master's
degree from Indiana Universitywhere, if you're outside the US,
(03:52):
Indiana University is inBloomington, Indiana, one of the
middle states in the UnitedStates, and if you're from the
United States and you're fromthe Midwest, you're rolling your
eyes right now, but it is whereI met my now husband, so I have
a lot of good feelings aboutIndiana, or what's called IU.
After that, I ended up workingfor the Smithsonian Institution,
(04:16):
which a lot of people havevisited in the United States and
Washington DC, and thentransitioned back into higher
education when I moved to becloser to my then boyfriend,
Scott, who I'm married to nowfor 33 years.
Crazy, I got married when I was10.
(04:38):
I ended up moving back to theBay Area, which is where I'm
originally San Francisco BayArea, which is where I'm
originally from and my husbandsaid to me you know, higher
education doesn't pay that well.
It's a very wonderful career,but have you ever thought about
transitioning to business?
(05:00):
And I ended up moving intorecruiting and I started my
career in recruiting forDeloitte and spent 13 years with
Deloitte, had an amazing careerin San Francisco, in the Bay
Area, in the San Francisco BayArea, and then moved on and did
a year withPricewaterhouseCoopers, which is
(05:23):
another accounting firm well,well-known accounting firm.
When my husband got a job offerin Seattle, we and our one at
that time less than one year olddaughter moved up to Seattle
and I started a career doingrecruiting for Microsoft, which
is a small software company thatsome people may have thought of
(05:45):
, may have heard of, and I endedup in at Microsoft, also for 13
years.
I had an amazing career thereand doing recruiting and human
resources and executiveonboarding and a number of other
things in diversity andinclusion work.
And this is where the big pivottakes place and this is a pivot
(06:08):
that so many of your listenerswill really understand.
So I promise that this storygoes somewhere.
So in 2008, when the economytook a very significant hit,
3,500 of my closest friends atMicrosoft and I were laid off.
And when I was laid off, Iended up using the connections.
(06:30):
I had to do some contract work,when a lot of people do that,
and during the time I was doingcontract work for a few years, I
ended up doing something thatmakes perfect sense now to me,
which is a lot of people said oh, you were a recruiter, I'm
trying to look for a job.
I don't know how to find a job.
(06:51):
Can you advise me on what I'mdoing wrong?
And so I would treat people tocoffee.
That's when Starbucks stockstarted going up because I was
treating to so many coffees forfree, Because if you're out of a
job, you can't ask someone tomeet with you and not treat them
to coffee.
So I would treat them to coffeeand they would get jobs.
(07:14):
And I was having lunch I thinkit was happy hour so we were
having cocktails with a dearfriend of mine, Mary Beth mains,
and Mary Beth was asking mewhat did I think I wanted to do
next, Because she would justfinished up her coaching
certification.
So, as all good coaches,they're trying all this coaching
skills out on their friends.
(07:35):
And so she asked me what I wantto do and I said well, Mary
Beth, one of the things I reallyenjoy is I really enjoy
coaching people on their jobsearch, taking what I know about
how people are hired from myyears at Deloitte, Price,
Butterhouse and Microsoft andsome startups, and telling them
(07:56):
how to execute a job searchthat's thoughtful, strategic,
impactful, and I really enjoy it.
And she said, well, why don'tyou monetize it?
And I said, oh, Mary Beth,bless your heart.
As they say in the UnitedStates South, that's a favor,
(08:16):
not a business.
And she said, well, why not?
And that was here's our number13.
Again 13 years ago, Maureen, Istarted PLUM as a job search
coach serving women and recentcollege graduates, and 13 years
later, I've got a team of almost20 coaches, HR consultants,
(08:37):
resume writers and careercoaches.
So I do very little careercoach or very little coaching
these days.
I'm actually running thepractice.
So very long story.
But what I really wanna drivehome is that life is a
circuitous route for many of us.
And here I am.
(08:59):
Who would have thought that I'dend up going from thinking I'd
be having a career in nationalpublic radio all the way to now
running a practice here inSeattle for 13 years Of 13 years
.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
That's incredible.
That's amazing.
I was actually going to ask you, when you were treating these
ladies to coffee, were youcharging them?
But it looks like you were notcharging.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
No, I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
No, I was losing.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I was losing many because I was treating to some
pretty expensive lattes Exactly,and not to diminish the value
of a good Starbucks latte.
But when people ask you for afavor and they're out of work or
they're looking for work, youdon't feel like you can ask them
to treat it, Even if you'redoing them a favor Interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
So I was doing you a great job, yeah right, okay, and
then you then turned this intoa business.
How was it, in terms of notmaking that shift to making a
business, that you were charging?
How did you feel also about thecharging, because that is one
(10:08):
area lots of women in particularstruggle with the pricing, with
how to charge people Because,like you said, they're out of
work anyway.
So how does a lot of them areprobably out of work, so how did
you navigate that?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Well, that is a great question, because I was not.
I didn't consider myself abusiness person or an
entrepreneur.
I'd always worked for bigcorporations.
I thought it was a totalcorporate gal and when I started
my practice, I was really doingit blindly.
And I started with only 1500 USdollars to get it started, to
(10:46):
start a very simple website andmy marketing was just emailing
all my friends and I'm tellingthem what I was doing.
The pricing was one of the mostdifficult things because,
understandably, people do notlike to share or be transparent
about what they're charging.
(11:07):
If they have their own practiceand I understand that, I
totally understand that it'sproprietary and it feels awkward
.
And women, a lot of women, aregonna really understand this.
Women really don't like to talkabout money very much and we're
very generous.
I hate to be.
I hate to make a blanketstatement.
(11:28):
Not everyone is generous, butmany women I've met are,
especially when they'relaunching their practice.
So I had to really do it by feelat the beginning and after a
couple of years I realized thatwhile I was married to my
husband, who has an MBA, Ireally wanted to separate church
and state.
I really wanted to just bemarried to my husband and not
(11:51):
have him advise me.
And so I hired a business coach, and this business coach,
lenora Edwards, gave me suchgood guidance, and one of the
very first things she said to meis stop thinking of yourself as
a coach and start thinking ofyourself as being a business
person who is all about makingmoney, not in a money-grubbing
(12:16):
way.
But you gotta do things and setup strategies as a business.
Hire an admin, hire abookkeeper, get on it to really
get focused around what yourprofit and loss statement looks
like.
Get serious, laura, becausethis is important to sustain a
(12:37):
business.
And so that's how I finally gotserious and realized this isn't
just about coaching.
It's about actually building abusiness and building a brand.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Oh wow, Thanks for going into that, because that is
an area, like we said, manypeople struggle with, so I'm
gonna push you a bit here when Iknow I know Lenora.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I'm not being serious , you know me.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I know Lenora so, and she's amazing.
How was it when she wascoaching you from your own
perspective in terms of okay,I'm now moving from this being
from me being a coach, becauseyou see, the mindset of being a
coach is really different fromthe mindset of being a business
(13:29):
person how was that for you?
What struggles did you come upagainst in terms of your thought
process, and how did she helpyou navigate that?
Or was it something you wereable to navigate yourself?
Mm-hmm?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
well.
I love that.
Lenora really helped me,accountable, and she said do you
want this business to be robustand continue and continue
serving people?
If that's the case, she wasreally good.
She's like stop doing free onehour pre-calls, stop that, stop
(14:08):
doing this or do this.
And I just needed that guidance.
It's like hiring I even usethis analogy for myself.
It's like hiring a personaltrainer.
You know that you're supposedto lift weights to get stronger
and healthier and better andstrengthen your core so you
don't fall down right.
(14:29):
So you hire a coach to get youto that point.
And so I welcomed the guidance.
I wanted that advice and I alsoand I think your question
addresses this I also had to goto a place of discomfort because
my generous spirit wanted togive a lot away for free and
(14:52):
that was not sustainable and Ihad to come to terms with that.
And there's this kind of thismoment where you're saying I
really want to be nice, but it'snot in service to me and it's
not in service to my clients andit's not in service to people
who work with me because theyneed my attention and I'm
spending all this time doingthis free work.
(15:15):
I'm doing air quotes on thatfor all your listeners.
It's just not serving meanymore.
So I had to push myself to beI'm not saying less nice, but
just getting more business-likein how I operate it.
That is a pivot for sure,that's great.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
That's great.
And I love the fact that sheasked you the question what do
you want?
What do you have?
Do you want we had you see thebusiness?
And I think that is soimportant because that question
almost like makes you dream orhave a vision of what you really
want.
And even when you know thestruggle comes, or you know that
(15:57):
you know I need to be nice.
These people don't have a job.
They, you know I need to helpthem, I need to give things away
.
It brings you back to what'sthe vision what do you want to
do?
I love that.
So thanks so much for sharingthat.
So now the business is nowgrowing and I want us to kind of
go into you know what you'vediscovered over time, the
(16:21):
struggles or challenges you knowcan give us a case study,
examples of what, of how you'vereally helped people in terms of
the job search, because surelynow that so many people are,
there's a lot, there'stransition going on.
So how has it been for you?
Because I know your businesshas grown so much in the last
(16:43):
couple of years as well.
How did that happen?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
And, yeah, Well, two things and thank you for asking
that question.
Two things my own strugglesaround being laid off after
really devoting myself to manyyears at Microsoft and feeling
really committed to it andwaving the banner for a company
and feeling really discouragedthat they would not see me as an
(17:11):
individual who had a value bystaying at the company.
There was a lot of hit to myego, understandably, but the
gift of that was that I reallyunderstand that experience in a
very personal way.
So it enhanced my coaching.
It made me a better coach,because there's nothing that
(17:35):
makes you a better practitionerthan having been through
something yourself.
So when we do out placementwork, which is where companies
are letting go of some of theiremployees and as an act of
generosity, even though they'reletting someone go, they will
pay for plum to do coaching fortheir employees, and we do it
(17:56):
for some really amazingcompanies around the United
States.
And when I do an intake callwith a prospective client who's
been affected by a layoff,whether it be for out placement
work or someone who's just foundus via a search or a referral,
I come from a place of.
(18:17):
I feel you.
I've been there.
I knocked on my friendMichelle's door and cried on her
doorstep and said I can'tbelieve what this meant to be.
But I also believe that here Iam, on the other side of that
journey and I can speak and holdup the message that there is
(18:39):
light at the end of the tunnel.
Maybe not tomorrow, maybe notnext year, but there is that
light.
So the struggle for me wasreally losing what I thought was
my identity as a corporateperson and moving into being an
entrepreneur, which reallypushed me in a new and different
way.
As far as the clientsthemselves and coaching people,
(19:05):
I think what has been mostvaluable in all the work that I
have done as a coach and I thinkmy coaches on my team would
agree with me that being witnessto someone's pain and someone's
frustration and someone'sdisappointment is part of the
work in itself.
(19:25):
You, as someone who manages,who works with people and
coaches about what the braindoes in terms of the way we
perceive things and the way wereact to things, can really
appreciate that there's aprocess of sadness and
(19:47):
disappointment and you have tobe there and be there for that,
to get them to the other side,to where they really finally can
open themselves up to the ideathat they have a value and our
works show that value to theclient and get them through to
that other side.
So, just talking about pain andtransition, I think those two
(20:10):
things my own transition informsmy own coaching, not to jump
ahead, but as far as being abusiness person.
What that really did for me,however, is really opened my
eyes to thinking I'm a coach.
I thought I was a coach, butwhat I really realized is that
(20:34):
I'm a business developmentperson.
I love building brand andbuilding business and creating
opportunity for people on myteam to do the work of coaching
or HR work, and so I've pivotedyet again from not that I don't
coach I still have a fewcoaching clients but I have
(20:57):
pivoted more towards leaninginto running the practice and
growing it and coming up withbusiness development strategy
than almost anything else.
So there's lots of light at theend of this tunnel.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Oh wow, I love that.
I want to go back and then comeforward.
You touched on you losing yourown identity when you were
pivoting, when you were maderedundant and you then became a
business person.
And identity is a big thing aswell for people who lose their
(21:32):
jobs or who are searching,especially if they've been
searching for a long time orthey've been told that they're
going to be made redundant.
How does plum coaching helpthem navigate through that?
Because I know you've touchedon the pain, but identity is a
big one as well.
So how does that play out andhow do you work them through it?
(21:57):
And you can give us an examplehow that then changed into
somebody?
Because you see, with theidentity, it also impacts on
confidence and that will impacton interview and all that.
So, yeah, if you can just touchon that a bit, Well, I can only
(22:17):
speak to my own coaching.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
I think my coaches, if they were listening this,
would say oh well, that'sinteresting that you do it that
way, but I do it a different way, so I'm just going to speak for
myself.
The first thing I talk about ismy own journey with clients,
about how I Microsoft broke upwith me and, by the way, I have
a great relationship withMicrosoft.
I was the big I noticed.
(22:40):
I was just at a big Microsoftalumni conference presented
about LinkedIn, which is totallymy jam.
So I want to be very clear thatyou know Microsoft's my
ex-boyfriend or my ex-partner,but we're on good terms.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
So I first talked about how.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I'm a company.
When they let someone go, ittook me a while to realize that
Microsoft was not my spouse, notmy partner, not my bestie.
Microsoft was a company andtheir intention is to make money
and they have to run theirpractice and they run their
business in the way that's goingto optimize their return on
(23:21):
investment and their return totheir shareholders.
So the first is recognizing myown experience and sharing that
with them.
It doesn't mean it always landsat that moment, because there
is grief and there is, and Iunderstand that.
The other thing is I reallydrive home the point that in
order to be considered a strongcandidate, you have to show up
(23:44):
as a solution to somebody'sproblem.
And if you go into this workwithout regaining your
confidence which we work on andI'll explain how without
regaining your confidence, youjust show up as another problem.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
So the most important thing, the most important work
that I want to work on withclients right away, is building
their confidence.
And usually when I say to thesay, to the client sitting
across from me or across from meon the screen, I say you've
hired right, and most of themhave.
And I say, well, when you'vehired, if someone comes in and
(24:23):
they just seem depleted and sadand frustrated and are you going
to hire them, is that theperson you?
Speaker 1 (24:31):
want to bring on to your team.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Right, and they usually go, of course not.
So I say so our work togetheris to make sure you find out
what makes Maureen such a greatresource to somebody.
So let's discover that togetherand we do a series of work
exercises that get them tounderstand that there are.
(24:55):
I'm using my fingers here tocreate a Venn diagram for your
listeners not people who arewatching, but a Venn diagram is
in my mind that works for ourcoaching Is there?
The job is one circle, theclient is the other circle and
the overlap is telling thatstory of where they add value.
(25:15):
So they have to have a reallybuttoned up, clean, crisp,
articulate story that tells theemployer, the hiring manager,
the recruiter, their friends,even where that overlap exists
and what those experiences are.
So that's part of the work thatwe do.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
That's powerful.
That's really powerful.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
I don't know what that's powerful, is changing
someone's brain.
Honestly, Maureen, but I'll gowith it.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
That's what you're doing.
You're literally changing theirbrain.
That's what you're doing,because they've come in, like
you said, with that wholebaggage and what you're doing is
helping them rewire their brainto focus on themselves and the
value that they bring.
So that's it.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Oh, okay, well, I will take it.
I'm ready to be a brain expert.
Absolutely, I'll let you dothat.
I'm going to leave that firmlyin your court.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Let me take a brief moment to share something truly
empowering with you.
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(26:50):
or decisions.
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Let's jump right back in intoour conversation.
That's great Now.
(27:10):
So, coming back to where youare with Plum now in terms of
what you do, I want you to kindof go into a bit more detail
about your role now in Plum interms of the business strategy
bit and what you're doing withLinkedIn as well, and the
branding.
Is it personal branding thatyou focus on or is it branding
(27:33):
in terms of organizationalbranding?
Speaker 2 (27:37):
That's another interesting tipping point.
When I was working with Lenora,my business coach as well as a
personal coach that I had, whatI realized is I really wanted to
make sure that I was creatingopportunities for the coaches
that worked with me, and if thebrand was Laura, laura, laura,
(28:02):
people would only want to workwith Laura, which would not
necessarily serve me and was noteffective.
To scale my practice, I neededother people to do the work as
well and, of course, I wouldmake money off of that.
I'm not being shy about thatanymore and, by the way, I'm
very transparent with my teamabout the delta between what I
(28:25):
pay them and what I charge theclient so that it never catches
them off guard, and I think it'sreally empowering to own that
message.
But what I realized is that Idid go away from Laura being the
brand.
I could be the evangelist forthe brand.
(28:47):
I could be the spokesperson forthe brand, just like anyone who
hires a spokesperson.
Nike has spokespeople lots ofgreat athletes and almost every
big company has them.
But I wanted to pivot away fromthat and more towards plum as
the brand, and plum also hadmultiple offerings.
(29:10):
It had job search, coaching,career coaching, resume writing
LinkedIn profiles and HR humanresources for small to medium
sized business.
Well, I don't do all that work,so it didn't serve me to be the
brand anymore, so I pivotedaway from that and now, even
(29:30):
when people email me and say, oh, I want to introduce you to my
friend, you might eat somecoaching my responses always
thank you for entrusting yourreferrals to me slash plum.
Because I may not be theircoach, I may not be the resource
that they, that they lean intoor lean on when they're doing
(29:52):
the work.
But I really had to get morefocused on branding for plum and
I made significant investmentsin plum as a brand.
I want plum to outlive me.
I'm not outlive me.
I don't want to die really fast, I know, but it's good and,
(30:14):
based on what I hear from themarket here in Seattle and other
parts of the country amongother companies, people could
care less than Laura Peppin runsplum.
They just want to make sureplum exists.
So that is a sign of successthat it's about plum and not
(30:34):
about me and, by the way, thatfrees me up to just be Laura,
exactly Maureen just to connectwith other women through LA and
IWF and other organizations thatI belong to.
That's great.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
So, in terms of that transition, though, how was it
Because I think this is where alot of people struggle of
letting go, shelly, when youstart bringing people in how did
you find it to actually standback and let other people make
(31:11):
some decisions that you wouldhave made?
Because, like you said, the wayto scale is to do it, but doing
it can be quite challenging fora lot of CEOs or business
owners or founders, so how didyou navigate that?
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Well, I have to say I have an unfair advantage in
that I was a recruiter for over20 years I wanted to cover up
that number but actually wascloser to 25 years.
So I had done so much hiringand so much discernment work
around evaluating candidatesthat I was able, when I was
(31:51):
bringing people on number one, Iwas able to dive deep into
questions that would get me tothe answers surrounding their
commitment, their interests, etc.
The other thing is I reallytrusted my gut, and I know
(32:11):
that's not scientific, but Iknow it is.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Oh, it is.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Oh good, oh good.
Well then see, I'm closer tobeing a brain expert than I
thought.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
I said it, you are.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Thank you Is that I knew so many people, having
worked for Microsoft for so long.
I had colleagues at Microsoftthat I knew their work and when
they approached me, it wasn'tall Microsoft colleagues.
By the way, there might be somepeople listening to this, go,
(32:45):
wait a minute.
She didn't ask me to join Plum.
Well, I think my intuition wastelling me this person will be
great with clients.
I would trust this person.
They're a grownup and they'regoing to do the right thing.
They're going to represent mybrand.
So I have people on the teamthat, even beyond Microsoft,
there's a woman on my team,lynette, who I met through a
(33:09):
dear friend of mine, who was theCEO of a company and Lynette
was our head of HR and I metLynette through.
That was some contract work Ihad done with my friends company
and I really liked Lynette andI said I think she absolutely
would be an amazing addition tothe team and I reached out to
her and other people hadreferred people to me and I
(33:34):
always went into thoseconversations going would I feel
comfortable sending them in asmy proxy?
Actually, one of my favoritestories is I subjected myself to
a 16 weeks worth of 6am bootcamp.
Why did that.
Now I look back on it and go,oh my gosh, but the universe was
(33:57):
directing me towards Kelly, whowas my boot camp instructor and
she was amazing.
She taught kickboxing.
I felt so strong and so amazingas a woman able to take on the
world, at least the punching bag.
And I met Kelly and through 16weeks I went.
I know there's more to thiswoman than being a kickboxing
(34:19):
coach.
I went out to coffee and shetold me the story that she had
worked for Nike, adidas,converse, amazon.
She had been a sales leader, abusiness development person, and
she was a coach not justkickboxing coach, but a coach
coach.
And I went oh my gosh, kelly, Ineed a career transition coach
(34:43):
on my team.
Would you be interested?
So placing trust in people thatyou develop relationships with,
as crazy as it may seem, akickboxing coach or someone you
met.
So I trusted my gut about that.
I brought people on that I knewcould do the work.
But there are other people thatwere not my kickboxing coach or
(35:03):
not people, I admit, in otherways and I felt that my
discerning eye and the way thatI connected with people would
give me guidance.
And so I would say to yourlisteners who are trying to
decide whether they want toscale and add people, I would
say could you envision thisperson as your proxy, maybe
(35:28):
doing the work differently, butstill showing up in a way that
clients are going to email youand say thank you so much for
connecting me with Maureen she'sterrific.
Or Kelly or Lynette or Holly orDeanna or Nicole all the people
on my team or Lane, I got tothrow in Lane, and Matt, I got
to throw in.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah, no, but that's fantastic, and I like the fact
that you said they might do itdifferently, and that's the key
they don't have to do it likeyou.
It's accepting the fact thatthey might do it differently but
still get the results that areneeded.
And have you had anydisappointments or challenges
with people you've brought in,and if you just give us an
(36:11):
example of that and how that wasresolved?
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Well, I'm going to give you two examples, because
one is heartbreak that is goodand one is heartbreak that is
not so good.
So let me just assure all yourlisteners that you never get it
100% right.
It just I mean, I'm in that,was a recruiter for 25 years.
I still have made bad or I'mgoing to say decisions that did
(36:40):
not serve me and for variousreasons, people can leave or
they're not the right fit, andyou won't know that until
they're in role in place, andthat's just the reality of it.
So, you have to be ready for itand it may happen on your very
first person.
You bring on and that's okay.
(37:00):
Don't get, don't don't bediscouraged, keep trying.
Exactly the first heartbreak issomething that I think is is a
positive, and that is for sixyears.
I think it was six years.
Andy was one of my resumewriters and she worked with me
and a situation and clientsloved her and I love her and
(37:23):
we're still connected and we'restill friends and I, of course,
wish her well.
But after six years, situationchanged and she needed to leave
Plum, and I would be a hypocriteif I did not encourage people
on my team to go pursue what isright for them, what's right for
their family, what's right forthem, what's right for their
(37:44):
growth.
So, with my well wishes, butsincere disappointment for
missing out on her skills andtalents and gifts.
I wish her well and she left.
So that happens and you have tobe ready for that.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
People need to spread their wings, for whatever
reason.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
So, andy, I still miss you, but I also wish you
well, and you know I do, and she, by the way, has stepped up and
interviewed candidates for mehere at.
Plum because she is so she's sogreat about wanting Plum to be
successful and for me to besuccessful.
(38:23):
Social step up to support me.
That's special.
That's special Even today, Onthe not so good side, there have
been situations where I haveinvested my time and my
resources to bring someone ontrain them, and they really are
not the right fit.
(38:44):
I can feel that the clientfeels it.
I won't name anybody becauseit's fair and not right and not
human resources respectful.
But from those experiences, aswe should with all experiences,
I've learned to do things betteror get more buttoned up or be
(39:07):
more discerning or ask the rightquestions, and so I'm always
learning and while I may bedisappointed in the moment, I do
know that every act thathappens in my life is a learning
edge moment, and so I'velearned from that.
So no to your listeners.
(39:28):
You will have your heart broken, you possibly will be
disappointed, but that's justpart of the growth.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, thank you for touching on that, because it's
one I come across a lot.
Oh, but I trained the staff andthen they would leave, and I
love the fact that you've shownhow the key thing is that you're
learning consistently.
And yes, it's reality, theymight leave, but surely if they
(39:55):
live in good terms, like youdescribed at the beginning, with
Andy, where she's still part ofthe business in a way kind of
an extension, but also the onesthat don't really work out, it's
okay, you learn from it, youlearn from the experience and
you move on.
So, yeah, thank you so much fortouching on that.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
So, now we're coming.
Oh yeah, I'm sorry, I was goingto add one more thing, a
learning edge moment.
So one of the other things thatI think is a really key thing
when you own your own practiceand I'm sure you're going to nod
your head on video when I saythis the first contract that I
ever use to engage a client isnot even remotely similar to the
(40:37):
contract that I have today,because I learned from every
mistake of people trying to getaround things or missing
something or how we engage withour clients.
You go wait a minute.
Oh my gosh, how did they findthat loophole?
So you fill that loophole onthe next one and then another
(40:57):
client finds another loophole.
So I'm going to say to anyonegoing out there and starting
their own practice just knowthat part of the business side
of it is learning and changingyour contract over time.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Yeah, yeah, thank you for that, and that's so true
and I love it.
I love the fact that you'vereally touched on this, because
people just beat themselves upor end up feeling so bad, oh, I
got it so wrong.
I've done this, there's no need, it's happened.
What do you learn from it?
Learn and grow.
That's the key.
Oh, thank you, thanks so muchfor that.
(41:31):
So, now that we're coming tothe end of the podcast, can you
tell us how listeners that wantto know more about how Plom can
help them?
So the different aspects,because I know they are
different arms of Plom If youcan just touch on them so that
people that want to reach outcan go?
(41:54):
Oh yeah, plom can help me.
I need to speak to someone.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Well, let me just say that, as a business development
person, that question isawesome because this gives me an
opportunity to talk about howpeople can review what we do and
what the different services are.
So the easiest way to just lookus over and check us out is
(42:19):
just go to our website, which isplum, just like the fruit
plumseattlecom.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
And by the way Before you go on, okay, sorry, now I'm
just going to say so why thename Plom?
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Well, I don't know if this is true in other countries
, but in the United States whenyou get a great job, it's called
you get a plum job and that's agreat visual right?
I actually had some plumssitting on my kitchen counter
right now, and when you see aplum it's like a happy fruit.
It's happy, it's approachable,and don't we love that color?
(42:59):
I mean, the color is justbeautiful.
And so in branding andapproachability and all those
things, I just thought that'sreally great and all you have to
say is plum.
Like even in Seattle, people go, oh, I use plum and people go,
oh yeah, I know what plum is.
And that makes me so happybecause it's just one word, it's
so easy.
(43:20):
You don't have to remember likelaurapeppingcom, which is so
terrifically difficult, sopeople can go to plumseattlecom
and on it you'll see two reallybig areas.
One is all things career, whichwould be career coaching,
resume writing, LinkedInprofiles, job search coaching
(43:41):
and out placement.
Well, I don't know if that'sunder out placement, You'd think
I'd know my own website, and sothere's that button.
And then the other one is allthings human resources, all
things HR, and the humanresources side of our practice
serves small to medium sizedbusinesses up and down the US
West Coast, including Alaska.
(44:03):
So for those clients, for thosepeople we're listening in in
other countries, yes, we can dowork in Canada, but we're
probably not going to be aresource for doing work outside
of Canada or the continentalUnited States.
But we have HR consultants.
If you go to plumseattlecom inthe upper right hand corner it
(44:24):
says about us and you'll see allthe folks on my team and you'll
see some of them are HRconsultants.
Only go to their LinkedInprofiles because they're so
accomplished and I love showingthem off.
But you'll also see our coachesand resume writers there as
well.
So you can reach out to us viaour website.
Of course we have a connectwith us or contact us button.
(44:45):
They can connect that way andthen we follow up with a menu of
services which goes intogreater detail about the work
that we do.
But the thing that I cannotgive up, I just refuse, can't
stop, won't stop, Because everyprospective client gets a free
20 minute call with me.
Sorry, Lenora, it's true Istill do our free call, but it's
(45:08):
20 minutes, that's good.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
And that's the personal touches in it.
I love that.
I like that yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Well, again, when you've lost your job or you're
looking for a job or you're inthat state of flux.
You really want a human being,and so, while we are learning
how to use chat GPT in otherways, I promise you chat GPT
does not do our resumes, but wedo play with that.
Chat GPT will never replace theone on one personal experience
(45:45):
that we provide when someonecalls us.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Yeah, that's true and that's powerful.
I think that's really good and,like you said, it's not an
hours 20 minutes and yeah, I'mjust relating.
When people can see where youare, the fact that you've
actually been, you know, youknow what they're going through
because you've been there itmakes so much different.
So I think that's nice.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
That's good.
Well, it does yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, and what about LinkedIn?
What do you do with LinkedIn?
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yes, you asked me about that.
So LinkedIn, because I used itas a recruiter.
I have a Many recruiters outthere not that they're going to
be listening necessarily to apodcast like this, but if
they'll, they'll probably sayyeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a total
LinkedIn jockey.
I know how to use LinkedIn Well, because we know how recruiters
(46:37):
and hiring managers useLinkedIn.
We share that knowledge withour clients, and LinkedIn
workshops are something that Ido I have consistently done over
the last 13 years as Not only away to share that expertise in
a broader way, but it's also abusiness development tool,
because if you can see that Iknow what I'm doing when it
(47:00):
comes to LinkedIn and how tocreate a really strong LinkedIn
profile, they're gonna go ohyeah, she does know what she's
doing.
Or her coaches or resume writers, who also do LinkedIn profiles,
will know as well.
So LinkedIn what's reallyimportant about LinkedIn for
your clients is, or for yourlisteners, is that we really
understand who you are and whatyou do in Approximately six
(47:24):
seconds or less, and so our workis showing you how to make a
LinkedIn profile stand out inthose six seconds, because
that's about all the eyeballtime that's true.
A Recruiter or hiring managergives it when there's, when
there's going through.
If you're, if you're watchingus on this video you don't see
(47:46):
me swiping.
I, like I mentioned I've beenmarried for 30 years.
I don't really know swiping, butI can't tell you from a
recruiting standpoint, not adating standpoint, that
recruiters and hiring managersswipe very quickly.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Yeah, yeah, and they make you know the impression
they did so fast.
You know they look at it, theymake their or they have an
impression of you so quickly, sotrue, so true.
Thank you so much.
I'm going to put all thedetails in the description so
you can click on them Whereveryou listen to this podcast and
(48:22):
you can get in touch with Umplum coaching.
It would be so good.
You know it's been a.
It's been a huge pleasurehaving you on the podcast, Laura
.
How large is your team now?
I know you did say it at thebeginning how large is it 19, 19
people?
Speaker 2 (48:39):
We fluctuate between 20 and probably 18, depending on
whether my heart is broken ornot broken, and so, and uh, yeah
, I just um, I think 20 is asbig as we will ever get, because
I love knowing people on myteam, loving the names of their
kids or what their favoritefoods are, or I like getting
(49:02):
them to know one another, and Ifeel 20 is about all my brain
Maureen can handle.
Thank you so much for giving methis opportunity to spend this
time with you, number one,because I just adore you.
And number two.
I am a listener.
And, uh, finally, because I ama business woman and this is a
(49:24):
great opportunity to share mystory.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
Yeah, I know it's been.
It's fantastic having you, andit's been something I've been
Saying I've got to do, so I'm sopleased with doing it.
It's been a huge pleasurehaving you on.
So before we leave, though, canyou give our listeners a final
word of advice, mainly to people, actually to two groups of
(49:47):
people to entrepreneurs, butalso to those who are searching
for work at the moment?
Speaker 2 (49:55):
To entrepreneurs.
I have um Two bits of advice.
I know you said one, but I'lljust give two.
Number one is I call myself thehuman bumper car.
I try things out.
If it doesn't work, I pull backand I go again.
And I pull back and I goforward.
And you can't take itpersonally.
(50:15):
I there are many things thatI've tried at plum that just
didn't work and it's.
I just can't let it affect myego.
I just try and do somethingelse.
So just know that as anentrepreneur, you're going to
try a bunch of stuff.
It may not work.
Keep trying, but Don't dig inso hard that you think the
market just doesn't understandyou.
(50:36):
The market understands you.
If they want it, they willrespond to it.
So that's the first bit ofadvice to entrepreneurs.
The second bit is listen.
Listen a lot.
Listen to your customers,listen to people you're that
you're getting inputs from.
Really take it to heart,because I can't tell you how
(50:56):
many times People with a firmwill contact me and go I'm going
to be a resource to you, I'mgoing to partner with you, I'm
going to help you.
I'm like how can you do thatwhen you don't even know
anything about me?
Why don't you listen to me?
First have great questions andthen build your message from
listening.
So that's two pieces of adviceto entrepreneurs, the.
(51:19):
The last piece of advice wouldbe to job search and People who
are on the job search, and thatis remember that Just what
marine is talking about yourconfidence and building your
confidence.
It may be from Learning how torun a marathon during the time
(51:40):
of your search.
It may be discovering theskills, gifts and competencies
you can bring to a job.
It may be, um, tacklingsomething you've never done
before, which I did when I wasunemployed I took up archery.
That was a big thing.
So, um, yeah, I need to get mybow back in action.
(52:02):
But Whatever it might be, tobuild your confidence, that is
really the hardest hurdle totackle.
And whatever you can do,whether it be working with
marine, whether it be workingwith a plum Uh, firm like plum
building that confidence isreally key to showing up as a
candidate of choice, and all theother stuff can be taught, but
(52:24):
building the confidence isreally key and critical to doing
this work.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
Rosh Lara.
That's, that's really powerful.
I like what you said.
Building your confidence that's, and the examples you gave is
not even Doing it in the areathat you're looking to work, is
doing something else, and that'sreally that's great.
That's great because that's theeasier way to build the
(52:50):
confidence by doing somethingdifferent.
You know, do something you'venot done before and your brain
then goes Actually I can't dothis.
If I can do this, then I can do.
I can really get back intogetting that job.
I love that.
That's so good, thank you.
Speaker 2 (53:09):
You know a bit more about how the brain is going to
respond than I do, but I, I, Ithink it's working and I will
tell you, as someone who doesarchery, that there's nothing
more confidence building thangetting a bullseye, and then it
has nothing to do with my jobExactly.
Speaker 1 (53:26):
Yeah, no, that's great, that's a good example I
wish you all bullseyes.
Speaker 2 (53:30):
I wish everyone listened to that Exactly.
Go on bullseye.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
Oh, wow, that's, that's, that's great.
And then for the entrepreneurs,you said don't take it
personally and listen, and bothfantastic advice, don't take it
personally is so good.
Listening is, yeah, you know,that is just amazing.
Laura, you are a superstar, youare amazing.
I remember, um, when I met youthis was going back a few years
(53:59):
now and because I've beenposting and you said to me, more
in what you're asked, what areyou asking for?
And I had to step back and thengo oh, actually, it's true I'm
posting but not really askingfor anything, and you pointed it
out to me.
And you know, I just love youso much, you, you know you, the
(54:20):
advice you give, you're just soopen to giving and you care so
much.
I love you, love you, love youloads.
Honestly, I really do, and I'mso pleased I got to meet you,
but I can't wait to you know, Ican't wait to see you get a.
Speaker 2 (54:37):
Laura hog, you know I cannot wait where, whether it's
whether it's, I actually wouldrather come your way than you
come my way.
But you are over in Seattle,always, always, always.
And thank you to your listenersfor making it through what is
hopefully valuable to you.
And also being a fan of Marines, because I'm a fan of Marines
(54:59):
and I want you to, I want tojoin your club of being a fan
out there in the universe.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much, laura.
It's been great having you on.
Thank you once again.
You're welcome.
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