About This Episode
Episode #6 is with Jonathan Javier, a young Silicon Valley-based CEO with 15,000+ followers on Linkedin. As the CEO & Founder of Wonsulting, a career consulting company, Jonathan’s mission is to help turn underdogs into winners and bridge the gap between non-target schools and the world’s top companies.
Topics discussed in this episode include:
1. Developing a personal brand
2. How to effectively utilize LinkedIn
3. The Story behind Wonsulting
4. How to networking to get in to your dream job
5. Mamba Mentality
Listen To The Episode On Spotify
Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to The Brew. Today, we’re joined by a special guest, we got Jonathan Javier here today. We’re also joined by Nikhil. And we’re going to be talking a lot about Wonsulting as well as personal branding on LinkedIn a lot of really, really good content.
[00:00:33] So just get started. Why don’t you introduce yourself a little bit more a little bit about your background and what you’re currently doing.
[00:00:39] Of course. Thanks, guys, for having me. So I currently actually work at Cisco, so I work on the go to market strategy ops team over there in San Jose. And then also I’m CEO and founder of Wonsulting and then previously worked at Google and Snappin Strategy, obviously, as well. And so far today we’ve done 54 workshops while speaking engagements and like four plus countries, which has been amazing. And it’s only been a year and a half. So once all things just started actually a year ago from like five days ago, six years ago. Because what we’re doing so but yeah, basically it started then. It’s been really amazing just going to universities such as UCR, of course, Vancouver at UBC, all these different places just to make an impact and turn underdog’s in the winter, which is which is basically our mission.
[00:01:24] Awesome. Amazing. Yeah.
[00:01:26] I mean, I think before we start going into Wonsulting and what it’s all about, I think the first thing that I really want to talk about with you, especially with your kind of clout on LinkedIn and all that is going into the concept of personal branding and your brand in general, because I had a very good conversation with Neil Goyal, who also is a user student.
[00:01:46] And he and he started and he immediately told in this podcast itself, like how he got his job at PayPal was through his own personal brand and by pushing out content on LinkedIn, but kind of go into your philosophies on it. What do you think personal branding really is and how important is it for the modern day job market?
[00:02:04] Oh, it’s so important. We’re sort of having a personal brand because at the end of the day, you think about it. And I was actually just talking to one of my clients recently. A lot of people have similar experiences on the resume, specific skills. But if you have a personal brand where things can come proactively rather than reactively, then that’s going to make a difference. So, for example, actually my all three jobs, Snapchat, Google and Cisco, I’ve actually never applied to them. Really, it’s all reactive recruiting. So basically the recruiters reached out or I just slid in the dorms, as I say, and like a message that it’s very important to create a personal brand around yourself, because at the end of the day, like, for example, for me, what I try to do is have that niche market specifically with non target schools, nontraditional backgrounds, and then help those students get into their careers. Right. And so a lot of people will have that story. You know how that story of, oh, man, I want to work at the top tech company or I want to work at a big bank, for example. Right. But they just don’t have the tools, the tools or they don’t know about it’s information. All right. So just by bridging that gap, I feel like it’s really important. And so that’s why I built that personal brand around that. And actually how I started the personal brand was really interesting. So I do it’s funny you mention Neal, because he does his videos and I actually did those before, too, specifically with weekly words of wisdom. Right. Right.
[00:03:20] And so actually, the reason behind that was because I wanted to get into tech and I want to network with tech professionals. So then my mindset was, OK, if I do these videos, invite people who are specifically in companies I was interested in working for and showcase them on LinkedIn with my followers, then they’d be like, oh, like, for example, I need a referral for this company or I need someone to network with, then that person would be like, OK, yeah, sure, we can definitely connect. So just by kind of building that personal brand, it’s allowed not only me to like gain more opportunities, but help my clients and mentees as well.
[00:03:53] So I think that’s a that’s very interesting because a lot of times when it comes to personal brand, I brought this up when I was talking with Neil as well as a personal brand is really not what you want to say about yourself. It’s what other people say about you. And I think that really comes back down to the content that you’re creating and pushing out there, because a lot of students, they want their resume made obvious to be perfect in the very traditional routes, a resume being perfect, their cover letter being perfect or applying to the companies that spend a lot of time. But as you stated, a lot of people have the same credibility. They have the same everything, like from their job experience to their education experience. It’s all the same. What really, really differentiates them is stuff like those pieces of content that are really pushing out that really show that like you really care about the industry or you can actually be a thought leader or push content into that industry. So, yeah, no, definitely.
[00:04:42] And you think about it, right? It’s the content that you create literally reflects. Like what I say actually in the workshops is think about, for example, Bill Gates. What do you think? Like what are some words that come to mind when you think of Bill Gates?
[00:04:54] Well, I mean, obviously right away you’re going to think of I mean, Microsoft, you might think of the company he created, but then they also are going to think of the Bill Gates Foundation. You’re going to think about what he’s trying to do for I mean, everything from working with Third World countries is benefiting basically. And I mean I mean, I agree with that. I mean, that’s his personal brand, because it comes he doesn’t just talk about the stuff he puts his actions, his money towards those objectives.
[00:05:18] And I was going to say to literally all the things you said, you. Learned that from what social media, right, like LinkedIn, all these different articles, and that really reflects the personal brand. So I was actually looking at Bill Gates LinkedIn like last week, and he posted about Alzheimer’s disease. He posted about his foundation. And that’s just a personal brand he’s creating. So when people are thinking of, oh, inspiring someone who cares about the community, they think of Bill Gates so similar to me. What I try to do is, OK, someone who comes from an on target school, someone who comes from nontraditional background, who do I think of that could help me get into their career? And so I want to create that personal brand around myself where people will then be like, oh, that’s Jonathan. So that’s how I kind of created the personal brand around basically myself. And what. Zoltán Nice.
[00:06:01] That’s great point. I think to add like a different perspective of it, like a lot of people don’t realize that networking happens internally as well. Mm hmm. So right now I’m working on Deloitte and like networking is such a big part of the culture. And what like a lot of people don’t realize going in is that there’s so many different roles that you can get as like a business technology analyst or a consultant in the company. And one of my ultimate passions for like the last two to three years was it has been and continues to be you UI. And when I realize I like the way it has this entire area of, like people doing digital work and like web design and stuff like that, I was like, OK, I need to stand out from all these other people because right now I look like them. Mm hmm. And but our skills are actually different. So ultimately it came down to reaching out to the right people and creating content. And for me, that was creating websites and a portfolio and sharing my content with, you know, different leaders within the space and getting seen that way. And then eventually, like one and a half years later here I am sitting in a U.S. UI role because of the content that I shared and the people I now work with. So ultimately creating that personal brand doesn’t isn’t only important just for getting a job, it’s for getting in the places within the jobs that you already have that you want to be.
[00:07:30] You definitely networking internally is so important, and especially when you work for any company, you can literally find anybody who’s, like, working specifically at your company, obviously. Right. So that’s what I actually did specifically with like, for example, when I was at Google, I’d always reach out to, like the big VPs and try to, like, talk to them and get a phone chat with them. Yeah, because the end of the day, if you have some people who are higher up there and they’re seeing the different things that you’re doing, then they can basically, for example, if you want to move into that role. Right. That’s why I actually moved from being an analyst to a trainer when I was at Google, just from that networking perspective, because then you can just be like, hey, Nikil, I just can we chat for 30 minutes and then or you can just meet on campus, for example. Right. So it’s definitely important to work internally.
[00:08:11] Yeah, I can I can actually and talk about that with Ezri. I mean that all our cases, it’s very similar because that’s literally the role I’m currently in on the integrated marketing and the digital performance management team at Ezri. That really happened from while I was interning at AZRI. I asked if I can do a specialty project for this department because a lot of the stuff that interested me, I did a specialty project there. I created connections there. I asked for those 30 minute, you know, one on ones with the directors and all that kind of stuff. After I finished that, they set up a specialty position as a student tech up an MBA, and I got that role.
[00:08:45] So it really came from networking within that organization, building my personal brand. They understood what my capabilities were, my background, my portfolio, that kind of stuff, and allows me to work in a department which is really cool because I’m the youngest, not department, and you don’t see anybody my age in that department. And it really came from just my networking. It didn’t come Tuffin.
[00:09:05] I’m, I’m a solid twenty three, but like let’s take the fifty for now. I mean that gives me a lot of clout. If I was ten years old at the department, I’m outgoing now but. But that’s awesome.
[00:09:16] No I definitely like and for example, when you network internally to what I was going to say is you find mentors. But there are also people who are Sammie’s subject matter experts at different fields. So, for example, like if I have a question in regards to Excel, Mike, who do I think of? Oh, I think of Mike Supercold Excel or for example, like, oh, I if I need help in regards to school, who do I reach out to? I reach out to Justin. Right. So at the end of the day, when are you able to network internally? You can find so many other individuals who are semi at specific areas that you’re not strong in and literally send them some projects that you might be working on that you need help with. So, yeah, it’s very important to do so.
[00:09:51] Yeah, and I, I agree with that as well, because when you’re helping other people out, they’re going to help you out with stuff. So it kind of goes both ways. It creates that mutual respect within the company. And I think that’s what actually makes companies better, is by having the employees themselves find what they’re good at, what they’re not good at, and working together in a collaborative environment. But that only comes from having those networking opportunities and actually going out there and solidifying your own personal brand, what you’re good at and what somebody else is good at and then helping each other out, because at the end of the day, not. One person in a company is good at everything, so I think that’s a really good point, by the way, and not like like you said, helping other people out.
[00:10:27] And that’s what Washington is all about, right? Is helping underdogs, trying to winners. And that’s why I love coming back to your site and speaking, because at the end of the day, it’s actually super not I won’t say simple, but it’s way easier than people think of how to find jobs, specifically when you graduate or if you’re just trying to find internships by using LinkedIn.
[00:10:45] So, yeah, actually, that’s a perfect segue into the next topic, which is how to use LinkedIn, because obviously LinkedIn is the number one platform for personal branding. It’s number one platform when it comes to professional connections, networking, getting jobs, all that kind of stuff. But the majority of time, I see a lot of people using it the wrong way. And I don’t I don’t think they’re using it the wrong way because that they they just I feel like they just don’t really understand how to use a platform. And a lot of times there’s I think there’s two disconnects. One is that they’re too scared to put out content because they just it’s a professional platform. So they don’t really know how to be professional. Or the other side of the equation is that they are putting out content, but they’re putting out content to boast about what they’re doing. But not really. I’m happy to announce. Yeah, exactly. I’m happy to announce kind of stuff. But they’re not necessarily adding added value or providing connections or helping other people out. And I mean, that kind of goes back into Wonsulting, which I’ll allow you to kind of talk to is what is the actual proper way to use LinkedIn? I don’t think there is a proper way necessarily, but there’s a the kind of best practices of how to use LinkedIn to really get that network. You want those jobs that you want, the network you want and all that. Yeah, no, that’s a that’s a good question.
[00:11:59] So, yeah, LinkedIn is you can utilize LinkedIn so many different ways. So I’ll go through the first part actually with networking. Right. So a lot of people make the mistake when networking is just by, for example, me reaching out to you and saying, hey, I want a job industry. Right. Would you like that if I just say, hey, I want to, you know. Right. So basically what individuals who do on LinkedIn is, number one, reach out to alumni specifically from the university or if they’re part of similar organizations. So, for example, if I go data, if I were in fact I data and I saw someone working at AZRI, for example, and I wanted to work at Ezri, I’ll reach out to them because you share something in common. Yep. Same thing for your server side. Right. And the main part of it, too, is you have to build rapport first before actually asking for that referral. So, for example, what I usually say is send a personal invite like every single time you connect with someone, especially if you don’t know they’re strangers and literally can just be like, hi, Nikil. Hope it is going well. My name is Jonathan off the air. Let’s say I’m a student current fourth year business student from UCR so that you graduate from UC Riverside and work at Deloitte would be great to connect with a fellow. Hylander Just that simple message. You just copy and paste that to different people. You establish number one, you did research specifically on that person. Number two, that you’re both from UCR, for example. And number three, you’re going to be the only person that sends a person on by. At the end of the day, literally, people just click connect like I have no flex or anything. Like I have like fifteen hundred pending right now, like with no personal events. Yeah. So it’s very important to do that. So that’s one part. And then number two, for example, I know you guys talked about like people are just boasting. Right. So you definitely should provide value. So for example, what I actually wrote about specifically in the I’m happy to announce article that I did recently of how to like change that into an opportunity is that you actually give two perspectives. Number one, when you announce it, you should show exactly how you kind of got into that job. Yeah, right. Maybe you got it from a friend. Maybe you got it from a referral, maybe got it from a career center. Right. Give those specific steps because then will empower other people to follow the steps and get a job too. And then number two, what you can actually do with those. I’m happy to announce posts. So you guys, you know, they say I’m happy to announce. They basically just do a little spiel about their story. But at the end, they tag people. Those people that they tag are literally the recruiters. So what do you do? You send them in and be like, hey, Valpreda is going well so far. My name is Jonathan. So that you got an Akela job and would be great to connect and learn more about the application process. You really found every hiring manager, specifically the company just from that, and of course, are going to be willing to help you if you share the same characteristics as the other person NIPSCO. But, yeah, that’s those are two different ways that you can look at it. Well, yeah, definitely post content on LinkedIn and how people react to your content is a lot in regards to a story. Yeah, right. Because at the end of the day you can have like this is what I was in my current state. I just this is what I was like a year ago. This is the climax of what happened. These are the takeaways I took from it. And this is the results that happened. Yeah. It’s kind of like start if you think about it, start method. So but yeah, basically it’s definitely important to create content because like you said, Neil got its opportunities from there. That’s how I got many opportunities from SNAP, Google and Cisco.
[00:15:14] Yeah. And I would like to like kind of add on to that point, which is the content you put out. It doesn’t necessarily always have to be just text, I mean, like I mean video content, obviously that’s a little scary for some people and stuff like that. But adding more visuals, like photos like, for example, like what you just said, like if you got a job at a career center, having a photograph at yourself, at the career center, at the table booth, having videos, because a lot of people relate to a visual seeing a representation of what actually happened or what you’re talking about. Text to the extent can be. There’s a lot of miscommunication there. And I feel like a lot of times people might be writing a post and good intent, but it comes off wrong because the tone that somebody else reads it in, like there’s a lot of misunderstandings to it. So by changing the media content provides a lot more credibility on your platform. And also it shows that you were able to do public speaking if you’re doing a video and it also shows you a lot more capabilities. So I would recommend a lot of people that are on LinkedIn to try to play around with that and providing more media as well as just the text itself.
[00:16:13] Definitely. And the attention spans of people are so small, right? Literally like 30 seconds. If I’m reading like an old timey article, like 5000 words, like, obviously I’m not going to read all of it right now. If you do like quick little videos or quick, for example, text and its value, it’s always value driven. People are going to be attracted to your content and they’re going to keep reading it. So, yeah, it’s very important to also take pictures because like, for example, what I tell people all the time to do is take pictures with every event you go to, every workshop you hold, because at the end of the day, so, for example, what I did was when I was networking with people at Deloitte, I would take pictures with the employees. Whenever I met with them, I would take them on LinkedIn, make a posting. Thanks, Mr. Cenacle. Thanks, Nikil, for meeting up with me. Really appreciate how well we spoke about X, Y, Z. Guess what? The reason why I did that was because let’s say Nikil likes it. Come and tell you who’s all in a close connection. Obviously everybody knows it, right. So think about that. Right. Think about it. If you want to work in a company, let’s say on work at AZRI, let’s say I want to work at Google, Facebook, go have a coffee chat with someone posted on LinkedIn saying, oh, this is I found value specifically in this chat tag. Then they can comment on it. All their followers are going to see it. Then you look at profile views, you add all the people at Facebook say, hey, John, hope your day is going well. So far, same thing. And then be like I saw that you viewed my profile due to my recent post with this person, literally. You just brought in your whole entire network or you created a whole entire network of professionals and your dream company.
[00:17:43] Yeah, yeah. It’s great. I didn’t didn’t Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, like.
[00:17:49] Yeah, he did. He did. Yeah.
[00:17:51] He’s shared actually actually the first. So basically how I started with workshops was I wanted to work for LinkedIn and I was like, all right, if I’m going to work for LinkedIn, what should I do on LinkedIn workshops? So I posted on LinkedIn and one of the workshops and Cordia Irvine University. Jeff Weiner liked it and that’s how all the people at LinkedIn found me. Oh, and then six months ago when I talked about my career journey from snap to oh snap to Google to Cisco, he liked and shared it. So then it got like this has 44000 likes to fly three million views on it, which is incredible. Right. And there’s a lot of people who comment on it. And it’s just cool because like we talked about the personal branding, like at Cisco, like everyone just calls me like a Cisco celebrity because a lot of people just know me from LinkedIn. Yeah. Yeah. And like, that’s how I actually got my speaking engagement to speak at. Great place to work this year. Well, I just like the big conference for best places to work. So I’m representing Cisco as like the millennial. I’m going to be like the youngest person who’s speaking like with a CEO of Accenture, actually sweet and different individuals. But like you said, just creating that personal brand around yourself. Yeah, it’s super important.
[00:19:01] That carries a lot of weight. And I guess that that’s once again, a perfect segue into the next topic, which is a resume is exists, cover letters exist. LinkedIn is kind of a new way to go about it, personal branding, all that kind of stuff. But what I’m really interested in knowing, especially as you see this, is we are using alumni and currently as a graduate student, is what made you really want to start insulting? What made you really want to start the career path that you’re currently on and that the trajectory that you’re trying to do? Yeah, no, it’s a good question.
[00:19:30] So actually, when I was at UCR, I was applying to Big for going to the big banks. I actually flew out to Goldman Sachs twice, didn’t get the offer, didn’t get any offers from Big Four, unfortunately. And that was kind of my company that I wanted to work for. Yeah. And I was like, man, like it’s because of the school I attend. Was it just because I was late to the game when in reality you can literally find these different opportunities just by using LinkedIn? And so that’s why for every job so snap, I utilize LinkedIn message to get that job for LinkedIn content creation. I got Google and LinkedIn personal branding got Cisco right. So basically bridging the gap between these top students from non targets, large nontraditional backgrounds and helping them get into their dream companies. It’s just super important. And the things that I love to teach literally aren’t rocket science like the stuff I just told. You like you don’t even need Lincoln Premium for it. Yeah, so the thing is, if you are able to provide that information and value to students and professionals and they’re able to be like, man, this is so easy to do, then more people are going to be like, OK, I can turn from like an underdog into a winner. So basically that’s kind of how everything started. And so just from like Meyer story of rejections not getting into these companies, at the end of the day, I was able to just by utilizing LinkedIn and creating content and the personal branding as well.
[00:20:51] OK, and then obviously now Wonsulting you, you said like what is a two years or one year in one year? One year, in fact, like, I just literally one year because it started January 20. It’s my birthday on 2019. So, OK, so it’s been one year. Obviously, you’ve had a lot of progression with it. What has been kind of a learning curve that you’ve noticed when it comes to insulting and how you’ve kind of adjusted your practice necessarily or things you’ve added on to what you’re currently doing? Yeah.
[00:21:21] So what’s really been interesting is thinking of the models, specifically what, scaling it out. So at first I was just doing it like it was just an idea. To be honest, when I was starting out in twenty nineteen, I was just doing workshops. I was like, I might as well just name it something. And then what I did was mixed winning with Wonsulting with a Wonsulting with something insulting. That’s right. So and plus my nickname’s wanton John. So I was like what’s on.
[00:21:45] And so I figured yeah that’s what I usually tell people, the winning and Wonsulting, but like people like what the hell is going on basically like.
[00:21:54] Yeah, but it’s been it’s been interesting. So basically I was trying to think of the different ways of how we get clients. So now, like, for example, I actually didn’t like when I was charging people I would charge a super low. And so, like, I realized that it’s not like if you charge super low and you’re putting like, let’s say, 10 hours of work and only getting paid fifty dollars, that doesn’t make sense.
[00:22:16] Right. So, for example, what I try to do is do a life cycle I call life cycle. I learned Cisco, we talk about customer life cycle of things, so we basically revise resumes. Then we do a linked strategy like the one I just told you for that client. And then we prep them for interviews and then we connect them to job opportunities. So basically, at the end of the day, when you’re going through Wonsulting, you’ll be able to get a job, because that’s the main point, right, if you’re going through it. Right. So I’ve been focusing more so on that side for clients and then the other side is speaking engagements. It’s been really interesting because before I would always reach out to people will be like, yo, I’ll do a workshop for you for free. But now, since it’s grown, the personal brand on LinkedIn, I literally barely do any reach outs like most of them are.
[00:22:59] Like I’m honestly like probably two percent. I reach out like 98 percent. Usually this organization or university reaches out. So but it’s all just by creating that brand on LinkedIn right now so you can literally find clients. You could just actually so many different strategies you can use to find clients and speak engagements. And as well on LinkedIn, it’s incredible. It’s always nice.
[00:23:21] And you’ve done like certain engagements and push shops internationally in South Australia, in Turkey.
[00:23:26] Was it Turkey? I was in Jordan. Oh, Jordan, Lebanon, Jordan and Canada and Canada, literally.
[00:23:34] I’m actually going to New York in two weeks. And in Michigan. Yeah, go back to Sokal all the time in Texas too as well. Yeah. Oh yeah. A lot of different places. So but yeah, the one from Jordan was really interesting. That came from literally LinkedIn. I thought it was a scam at first.
[00:23:51] And Jordan and then.
[00:23:54] Yeah basically I flew out there, it was in twenty eighteen. It was actually when I was working on SNAP and I transitioned to Google. But yeah, I basically talked about kind of the, the future of work basically there. And it was really interesting. There was like three hundred people and it’s a I love traveling and traveling internationally for sure. It’s beautiful they say. So reach out to you for that one. Yeah. It was this was this just random girl like literally I thought, I really thought it was a scam. She had like fifty connection requests and I was like, OK, it’s kind of weird. But then she like sent me the actual website and then I saw like, legit because it was like CEOs actually came from last year and I was like, man, why are they reaching out to me? Like, I feel like I’m so young and like I was only like twenty three at the time. Right. But at the end of the day, like I tell myself, that age sometimes doesn’t, it doesn’t matter doesn’t does it. Because at the end of the day you can have abundance of knowledge in your eighteen year old. Right. You can. There’s so many different people like some people graduate college when they’re eighteen, which is incredible. Right. So age is definitely just. No, as I say, but basically just through death, literally just doing it.
[00:25:00] And I think that the reason why you’ve been able to grow so fast and a lot of people reach out to you is just because they can relate to you.
[00:25:08] I think a lot of times the biggest disconnect when it comes to a lot of the, um, speaking engagements and a lot of speakers out here and a lot of life coaches and career coaches. Is that. A lot of outrage, I think that they’re disconnected from the reality of things, and I agree with that to a certain extent, because a lot of times when I hear career coaches talk, they’re always talking about the resume. They’re always talking about the cover letter. And they’re they’re putting a lot of emphasis on that. And I agree to that to a certain extent. But like that, that really doesn’t get people jobs nowadays. It really, really doesn’t, as we talked about earlier. And I feel like because you’re so relevant, that’s what really is open the doors left and right. And then what you’re speaking is actually causing an effect. And people can follow what you’re talking about and actually get results out of it. It’s not necessarily that they’re just hearing something. And then so what they’re literally they can hear what you’re saying and then actually implement it. And there’s something that will physically happen right after that.
[00:26:05] And I was going to say like these like those different opportunities of helping people actually come so much indirectly, too, as well. Like today I had some I hadn’t talked to this guy in like a while. And like, literally he reached out to me this morning and I was like, hey, you know, just let you know, man. Thank you so much for your help. I’ve been reading your posts and wants all things. And I got an internship at Google and he came from like a non target school in Texas. And he’s like, man, yeah, thank you so much. And that’s happened a lot, especially with a lot of different individuals. Like I honestly get like health messages, like every single like week, like hundreds of messages. But I try to message everyone back because then you create that community aspect of, OK, this person supporting one small team.
[00:26:44] I would love to hear about your success story and your underdog turn winner story. Right. But as you said before, to the resume and cover letter are basically kind of just the ticket in. But for example, you can literally find a hiring managers that are hiring for the rules that you are interested in and simply, you know how you do it. It’s actually going to be really funny. It’s going to be valuable to people listening. But all you’ve got to do is, you know, you go to LinkedIn jobs, right? And there’s a LinkedIn job there. All you do is copy the job. Right. So let’s say enterprise account executive at June season. I type it in, put it into the search results and you’ll find all the people who are specifically in that role currently right now. Yep, right. But guess what? What’s even crazier change is people to content. You will find every hiring manager that’s posted about the job that’s hiring literally. It totally works like I told people. And you can find every hiring manager. You send a message instead of send your resume to the application. You’ve really broken down the process of you applying and you literally just reach out to the hiring manager. And it’s so easy a caveman can do that. Right. So like you and you don’t even need premium. So basically, if you’re able to do that, that’s why the strategies are so valuable, because a lot of people think it’s super complex to get into companies. I need a prime resume. I need a beautiful cover letter. But imagine you just find the hiring manager who makes the decision at the end of the day. So it’s crazy how simple that is, right? Isn’t that crazy? Right. That’s what I actually did specifically for Snapchat. Yeah, literally. I was like, all right, we’re doing the work of Snapchat, put Snapchat into the search. And I said, OK, I want to be an analyst. Snapchat analyst, put it specifically on LinkedIn, searched, found all the people were Snapchat analysts, filtered it. The UCR wasn’t a lot of people connected with all of them. And then I changed the content, found the hiring manager who is hiring for that position. And so what I did was I reached out to professionals first, talked to them on the phone, asking about their day to day responsibilities. Then I reached out to the recruiter. I already knew all the things that they did on a day to day because of the employee, right? Yeah. And by doing so, they’re able to create a value for yourself, which will then be like, oh, this guy already knows about the job. Yeah. But what it entails. And he’s never with these people. And that’s how you get into a big tech company or top company, especially coming from like a non targets going nontraditional background.
[00:29:11] Yeah. And I think you touched on one of the most important pieces is what companies are looking for is they’re trying to hire based off the value provide to the company and a lot of a lot of students. Unfortunately, they apply to a lot of companies because they think that by applying to hundreds, hundreds of companies that you’ll hear about from X percentage, they’ll learn X amount of jobs. But if you put the right amount of effort and actually do your due diligence with the company, that’s how you do land that job. Because if you understand what their their vision, their mission, their values and understand what the projects are on, what their job role is supposed to be, what they’re going to do, you’re the perfect fit for the company because they’re looking for those people that add value, but also are part of that company culture and aligned with it. But if you can actually do reverse engineering, what you’re talking about, which is a very smart way, because that’s how I do a lot of competitive analysis for companies using Google search engine exactly the same way. But if you use that for LinkedIn, you can actually figure out exactly all those things I just brought up. You can understand what their mission vision, you can understand what their values are. You going to have the daily role, what they’re looking for, where the projects are on, what’s working, what’s not working. If there’s any complaints, you can understand everything. But just just looking up. And I was going to say to literally the values like.
[00:30:19] In the company, those are the interview questions, like people to understand, like, you know, like you can check Glassdoor story, they’ll give you questions. But if you think about it, all questions are asking are literally just from the values that they have on their website. So, like, for example, at one of my mentees actually had Cindy Quod, she interviewed Amazon, got an offer specifically for product marketing up in Seattle. And literally all we had for was just to be took questions out of the values of Amazon. We just prepped for them. And they were very similar to the interview process, because at the end of the day, if you can, for example, relate to the values of a company and show that you have the potential to ultimately work in and thrive in that company, then that’s going to be what’s most important, especially for a hiring manager. Because at the end of the day, like we talked about, everyone has very similar experiences and skills. But if you relate to the culture and the environment, that’s going to be a differentiator between you and another candidate. Definitely.
[00:31:17] And I know one thing I am very, very interested in now. So obviously, you’ve been able to grow one salting quite drastically over the one year. What is your future and what are you really trying to do with one salting? What is your next year goal the next five years ago?
[00:31:31] Yeah, so basically.
[00:31:33] So I am building on a team right now, actually just one of my good friends, Jerry Lee, probably seen them my on my feet. He actually just joined us, so I’m really excited for that. So we do a lot of the speaking engagements for a lot of the different universities and organizations. So hopefully we can be able to do over 100 by the end of the year. And then also we’re building out. It’s a secret right now, you’ll see in June. But basically we’re thinking of basically building out. We’ve been thinking about this for like a few months now. And we talked about this actually specifically with building the classes. But we’re thinking of getting the top students from the non target school nontraditional backgrounds and help them basically get jobs and have like different groups of these different individuals doing so. So, for example, those in product management, those who work in engineering, marketing, et cetera. So we have like a kind of full plan of doing that, hopefully in June. And then number three, hopefully partnering with like universities, specifically with like career centers, because at the end of the day, like, I hope that all these career centers and individuals, especially from the smaller schools, can learn these strategies and ultimately apply them so they can get their percentages up from like, for example, if I remember correctly, UCR was 90. That’s something 75 or 90 percent. I don’t quote me on that. Basically, like the percentage of people who get a job six months after they graduate. And so if we’re able to bridge that gap and make that’s like 100 percent just by using those charities, I thought, you know, I just told you guys literally that’s going to be super important, especially with the powering future generations. So we’re basically just building out a team, what I have as my mentees. So I have 20 mentees. They actually all got jobs from the top companies and I like help them do it through the process. And so I have them joining one soldier and working on different projects to help scale up the different initiatives. So and then last but not least, in building a community on LinkedIn, we have only been out for like a month and we only 500 members, which would be cool. So just filling that out and then empowering other people to do speaking engagements to as well, whoever wants to get into it. Because at the end of the day, we want to help not only our clients, students, professionals get jobs, but then also other people to get into their own speaking engagements and share their story, because at the end of the day, we all have an underdog winning story.
[00:33:50] Definitely. And I mean, the one thing I really like what you’re talking about is, is the connection to the university itself and working with the career centers. Because I one thing I do see quite often when it comes to career centers is that usually those career centers have a very old school approach of how they’re approaching companies and how they’re trying to get recruitment. And I really think, like, for example, UCR has so much talent, like ridiculous amount of time when whatever department you’re talking about, this guy, Ballinakill, I like to plug the like the main thing when I’m talking about this is like I know engineers at UCLA that are just geniuses.
[00:34:25] I know people that computer science, absolute geniuses. I know business students, absolute geniuses, but they still struggle to get into the companies that they want to. And that’s really just because, one, the connections that user has, which is one thing that they are improving on. And the other thing is how they actually go about the recruitment process and how they actually prepare students. And I think by just teaching more modern ways of going about it and actually working with these students, you see how it could be the top, like the top universities in a lot of fields, like getting the top candidates for Wonsulting, for tech, for bioengineering, whatever it is, we could have the top skill set for it and we have the potential for it. But it really requires that understanding and working and having students, alumni such as us coming back and actually working with our school to bridge that gap because all of us are doing what we’re doing. We have been successful in our fields, but us coming back and telling them exactly what we were. When we were undergrads, they might be able to realize that in the project and push students up front and I was going to say to you, that’s like us creating opportunities for them, right?
[00:35:28] Because at the end of the day, the difference between Harvard and like UCR is just sometimes opportunities. So, for example, was offered like companies will come to Harvard. So it’s at Harvard, but come to Harvard, come recruit specifically there directly and then hire them, right?
[00:35:43] Well, for us, we have to actually proactively go out there on LinkedIn or go to sneak. I remember I snuck into USC career fairs and Kalsi Fullerton’s and those different ones because they had the big, big four, for example. Right. So if you’re able to create those opportunities, like you said, and empower other students to ultimately reach those career goals. And that’s what’s important, because I also think what happens to is this sense of complacency when you, for example, are sending out the 100 applications. I’m not hearing back. Maybe you hear back from one and it’s like a frickin, you know, shitty job and it’s something that you’re not really passionate about. But ultimately, end of the day, if you’re able to use simple strategies like those ones, right, then you’re going to be able to get into whatever career you really think that you want to go into.
[00:36:30] Definitely, yeah. I feel like ultimately it comes down to like four UCR students, especially other non target school students from other non targeted schools. Like it comes down to utilizing resources such as or like basically everything that you just talked about on this podcast. If every single student did something like that, then they would be able to get attracted by these companies. And then eventually these companies are going to see the talent that comes out of these schools and then they go to the school. So it’s kind of like a cycle, a cycle in a sense. And personally, like at least when all three of us started at UCR and stuff, it felt like the school was like lacking certain resources. But now that we’ve graduated, we’re alumni and we’re giving back slowly and slowly. The school is like rising up in the ranks. And it’s like Disney, like jump like crazy.
[00:37:23] It’s ridiculous. It’s jumping like 30 ranks per year. Like, I think we’re right now, like, don’t call me this once again.
[00:37:29] Like you said earlier, I think we’re like right now it’s seventy-nine in the business school. And that’s ridiculous because we were like, where were you when we started? We were it was around like 130.
[00:37:37] Yeah, right. And just within the last five years, it’s just skyrocketing rankings. But that really comes from people such as the dean itself. Like the school business, Dean is putting so much money and resources and stuff like that to really grow the school. There’s people like Elaine Wong. There is you know, you have Ingram, you have your professors. You have now he has professor issues and new information systems professional like you. A lot of professors are really trying to propel and grow the school that are very, very fast skill, which is great. But it still doesn’t touch on what we talked about earlier, which is that if the career center so old school, does that really mean that we’re going to get more opportunities for the students just because the school’s grown? That’s kind of where the struggle for me comes from, is just by the school growing. And Rankins, does that really mean that we’re to get more better recruitment or better jobs for the students?
[00:38:22] Right. And I was going to say, you know what? What do you see? Or should do? They should have a required lifting class. I mean, I feel like that would be really beneficial. I just love Jonathan Harvey.
[00:38:31] You no getting us three. We can do it all three of us together with. Right.
[00:38:36] So, yeah, I feel like it’s so important because at the end of the day, like we talked about. Right, I feel like honestly resumes and cover letter is going to be obsolete at the end of the day because people can just really look you up, find out who you are specifically on your LinkedIn, not only your LinkedIn, but your social media, everything across the board, Twitter, Facebook, Tinder, not gay, but now but, you know, basically, like I’m telling you, the digital presence is so important because at the end of the day, you can literally see everyone’s experiences. And if you’re able to build a personal brand around yourself, where a recruiter will be like, oh, yeah, I know Valerie. He’s he’s an intellectual. He’s buff.
[00:39:14] I’m looking for small.
[00:39:16] But yeah, I like that, for example, then you’re able to have opportunities come to you rather than you always have to seek opportunities and then, you know, be deteriorated when they don’t hear back because like these big tech companies, it’s interesting. A lot of people will actually how they get in is not because they apply, it’s because they reach out to them literally on LinkedIn, like my friend Angela, she just got a job at Google. They reached out to her and I was talking to one of my friends literally on the car right up here. And she was like, oh, yeah, you. Google reached out to me for the sales role and I’m in the final interview now. But for people who usually apply, sometimes it’s a harder process because at the end of the day, it’s not like the big company or the company wants you. It’s rather you want to work at the company and they’re trying to validate whether or not you are qualified to work there.
[00:40:02] All right. So I think we touched on a lot of good points. We talked about personal branding. We talked about LinkedIn Wonsulting, everything from the origins to the growth of it. And a couple of things I want to close out on is obviously today has been a very sad day, the day. The recording today, Kobe Bryant passed away, which is obviously horrific, sad times, everybody who’s a sports fan or even just a fan of people that are given a positive light.
[00:40:29] A lot of things. But a couple of things I really want to close out is a constant mindset, because one salting wouldn’t exist without a mindset. Free media wouldn’t exist without certain kinds of mindsets. And a lot of the mindsets really come from people that have done it before and have taught younger generations. I personally, obviously have always looked up to Kobe Bryant and I’ve always looked up to Nipsey Hussle. Within one year we’ve lost both of them. But the mindsets they bring up and the positive light that they bring up, I think that’s one thing that should be discussed and should be kind of projected out all across social media to have and inspire younger generations to really chase their dreams and chase what they really want to do in life. But the couple things I really want to touch on, kind of Kobe Bryant and I once again, I invite everybody to say their own thoughts on this. But at least for me personally, when it comes to Kobe Bryant, the mindset that always kind of got me where I am today is that Kobe Bryant’s whole philosophy is on work ethic. I mean, everything he did was all about work ethic. I mean, one of his really famous quotes is said was, it doesn’t matter how hard you work, I’m always gonna work harder than you. And I love that because that’s the way that I perceive everything. And when it comes to school, I mean, anybody who knows me knows that if I’m dedicated to something, I will work my ass off until I beat everybody and that space because that’s just like what I love to do. And I really came from the understanding the way that Kobe did it, because seeing somebody else do it before allows you to be able to really to envision and envision and perceive it. And that also comes to like Nipsy also. So once again, we also lost him this year. When it comes to life is a marathon, not a sprint. And that’s another philosophy that those two together is the reason why I even talked to Nikil about creating Theologica media and the reason why currently building out at Sun Research and Canibus lifestyle and all these companies is because life really is a marathon. It’s not something that you something just happens. You’ve got to you’ve got to really work for it. But then combine that with Kobe’s philosophy of you’ve got to be the hardest work in the room. If you don’t put in the work for something, things just don’t happen. And I think that’s a mindset that I wish every single business student would actually not just business. Any students in any field you want to go into if you really care about what you’re trying to do, be the best in your craft and be patient with it because good things happen if you work for those things.
[00:42:42] Definitely. And that mob mentality, as I said, you just work your ass off as hard as you can. And I was watching actually on ESPN, ESPN two, when Jay Williams, Jay Williams former basketball player, he got hurt in a motorcycle accident and then he basically couldn’t play basketball anymore. He was talking about how he actually sharing the story about him and Kobe Bryant. And he says that he was actually practicing before a game and literally Kobe went there to as well to practice. Yeah. And Kobe was actually there for like five hours and he was practicing for like two hours. And then he left. And then after the game, the Lakers with their ass and thankfully just came by. Basically what happened was Jay Williams went up to Kobe after it was like, hey, what a what drives you, what basically drives you and your motivation. And I remember he said that Kobe was basically like, oh, you know, I saw you working, you know, I saw you working in the gym. So I had to make sure that I was working harder than, you know. Right. That same mentality, especially for coming from from different backgrounds, especially from that underdog and winning story. Right. If you are able to apply that specifically with you networking, then you can be able to go into any company, you know, because like, for example, like I remember I would go drive to OKC because that’s where I wanted to work. I would look at the sky skyscrapers, look at the companies I work there and then write them down, then go home, look at the career website. And then I network with people on LinkedIn to specifically network with those people to get into these opportunities. Right? Yeah. So if you are able to put, for example, allocate time, especially for networking, because like people for example, I remember my first two years, I was just like partying. I wasn’t being focused on my career. And I realized that I was allocating time to things that were temporary rather than things that are long term. Right. So if you able to allocate, for example, four hours, I can skip a party for four hours. I look at that time and networking maybe as a phone chats. Thirty minutes, you know, how much value will come just from that. You can change your life, right? It change your life. Right. And for example, like definitely like I remember to like I would I would be like, man, should I go fly to Alpha Convention because we have that every single year. It’s like man, it’s five hundred dollars. Right. Like should I do it when reality. I was thinking about it later on. I was like holy shit, because at the end of the day five five hundred dollars to get into a dream company and make eighty thousand dollars, a five hundred dollars nothing.
[00:45:00] And a lot of people buy new phones, they buy iPhones, they buy whatever the newest latest tech is, but they invest their money into things that don’t really matter. But they do it because the like the perspective that a lot of people think about them like they’re it’s sad, obviously, unfortunately. But like a lot of people put their money into things that don’t matter, like a lot of people ask me. Oh, why did you invest money into free, large media? Why are you putting your money that you’re making from Ezri into your own company? I’m like, because this is going to pay dividends when I’m older, is going to pay money when I’m older. I believe in this vision. I believe what we’re doing. And I really kind of goes back to your point is just that your time and your money should be allocated towards the things that don’t just matter now or just because it’s clout, but because they matter in the long term.
[00:45:41] Definitely. You have to look at that long term game at the end of the day. Right. And that’s amazing. I actually do the same thing specifically with my job, and I put it into Wonsulting. Right.
[00:45:48] Because when you’re investing back into these companies that you’re passionate about and I see both of you guys passion for free media, then at the end of the day is what’s going to take you into that. I’m assuming you guys want to do this full time eventually and that skill. Right, that I’ll be able to take you into that time from being in corporate or working at a company to being your own boss, because I feel like at the end of the day, we should all be our own bosses. I don’t want to forget, for example, I want to be my own boss and do my own thing, but also impact thousands of lives. And so, yeah, I definitely have that mindset and perspective. And I. You can get you places. Definitely. Yeah.
[00:46:23] Yeah. So like I mean ultimately, like with these guys, covid, NFC, Mac, everyone, a lot of these big people that we’ve lost, like it’s the influence as like really like affected us. Right. Like mindset is one thing that influences the other. I mean I personally looked up to other basketball players a lot more, but then again, like it’s Kobe and Kobe’s one of those people who really influence the game and influence other people like Evan. He’s wearing a Lakers jersey right now. And, you know, all of her friends were like mourning this guy’s death because he not only influenced the game, but influenced our mindsets and influence the things that we ended up doing. Like one reason why feel media is here is because Kobe influenced this guy’s mindset. That’s just like, yeah, that’s crazy, man. And we all Kobe, every time you go, yeah, yeah.
[00:47:15] Oh, beer pong. It doesn’t belong here, but I really do that last night. Yeah.
[00:47:20] So and I think that’s why I was really sad about it. It was just like this guy was still he was only 41 years old and he was still doing crazy things, making movies, won Oscars.
[00:47:37] He won the Oscar for his own brand.
[00:47:39] Everything and everything. It’s it’s crazy. Like it’s like Shaq and Kobe and Michael Jordan and all these people after basketball, they have their own businesses. Yeah. They went they do these different things to help the communities like Kobe build out his own facility, for example.
[00:47:54] Yeah. And donated most of his money back in trying to do economic development in low income areas like.
[00:48:00] Exactly. So, I mean, it’s it’s sad. It’s sad news by now. Kobe, at the end of the day would tell us to work our asses off in in memory for him.
[00:48:08] So definitely. But yeah. Yeah.
[00:48:11] But to end on a more positive note, I’m obviously so sad day, but ten on a positive note, the way that we like to end the brew is by having the guests provide the last piece of advice, whether it be around entrepreneurship or just personal development, whatever it is. But what is your last piece of advice you’d like to give out to those listening?
[00:48:33] Yeah, I going to say definitely utilize LinkedIn. And if you have your own underdog, try win your story. Please let me know. I’d love to showcase it so we can inspire and empower more people to get into their dream careers. Yeah, I mean, the strategies I love to teach are like the ones I told you guys about, the super simple. It’s very, very it doesn’t have to things that don’t have to be complex. What I like to say is it’s not rocket science. Right. So definitely use LinkedIn number one.
[00:48:59] Have these how you basically network number one, have ones have a bucket of people for professionals and another bucket for recruiters. Reach out to the professionals first from where either alumni from your school, alumni from your organization go on to their LinkedIn page, go to the alumni section and then search for whatever position you’re interested in. Let’s say operations analyst at Facebook now work with the person, then learn about their day to day, then go to the recruiter, literally take the information you got from the professional, put into your resume where you’ve used it, then go to the recruiter, speak the same language as that person. You’re going to get the job right, because at the end of the day, if you’re the same as a Facebook employee or an employee of that company, the recruiter is always going to be like, oh, this person’s literally the candidate I want to hire, because at the end of the day, recruiters have eight hours in a week, not, you know, eight hours in a day. Forty hours in a week to find a perfect candidate. Right. You just save them time because you already fit those qualifications and they’re ranked based.
[00:49:58] Their their goals are based on how many people they recruit. And so if you want to bridge that gap, you’re able to get in.
[00:50:06] I think that’s fantastic advice. It’s a win win win situation for everybody. Right. But I think that’s a perfect way to close out the broom. I appreciate you coming on to the Today show. I think it was a great conversation and at this time, it’s awesome. Thanks for. Of course. Thank you.
[00:50:26] Thank you for tuning in to the break, I hope you enjoyed this episode and tell us what you thought about our conversation and the comments below. If you guys like our content, make sure to follow us on the various social media platforms and we will see you all next.
