s3 E48 Back to the Drawing Board...and it's OK!

Job hunt getting you down? Can't sleep? Let's put your mind at ease and see if we can make this daunting task a little easier!

Check out the website! www.ComfortingVoice.com

See Emmy the MIni Macaw on her youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@voiceoftheparrot

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Good evening, and welcome to the Comfort in Voice podcast. I'm your host, Chester, and I've got Emmy the Minnie Macaw in the studio with me. The giant dog is just outside the studio door, and the neighbors across the street have their friends on motorcycles visiting, so I don't know what's gonna happen with the sound quality. You might hear some interesting sound effects from time to time. We'll see. I'll try to edit stuff out. Oh dear. It's a Monday on a Tuesday, I'll tell you that much. Is anyone else having a Monday on a Tuesday? Well, we're gonna talk about some fun Monday on a Tuesday type of topics tonight. The economy is just so messed up right now. And truth be told, let's be serious here. This is not a political podcast. But the government isn't always as forthcoming as we would like about what the job market is. And they do a lot of stuff to make things look good in their favor. And then we're left feeling like, what in the heck just happened? Like that that's not what I'm experiencing. So we're gonna address this particularly later in life. But really, this is gonna apply to anybody that's finding a lot of frustrations on the job hunt, uh, a lot of confusion. I got some stuff that might make you feel a little bit better about it, so you're not all like, oh my gosh, what's going on? So that's what we're gonna do tonight. It's a home first aid kit for the job hunt. I don't know what this is. Back to the drawing board, I think that's what I'm gonna call this. Okay, so that's the excitement you have to look forward to. Oh my gosh, let's just jump in with the normal stuff. We've got Emmy the Mini Macaw Distracted, and I already did a tea tag and fortune cookie slip draw, but I'm gonna do that a little bit different tonight, and we're gonna put that closer to um to the bulk of the the ramble chat. So let's get through some of the other important stuff really quick. First and foremost, we've been getting a few new listeners out there still rolling in really crazy. The Join the Fun challenge is underway and it's showing. Thank you so much for all of you that are participating. You're telling others, you're sharing a link in your social media platforms or your groups you're in, whatever. If you run into someone that's looking for, you know, stress relief podcast that's not stressful, something with stories, you know, we've got our Friday night stories, oh my gosh, we've got a new storybook going on, and anything that this podcast represents. No politics, no news, no true crime, no scary stories, no triggering content, stuff that may or may not be useful, probably somewhat amusing, there you go. The join the fun challenge. So that's your homework assignment. The join the fun challenge. And hand in hand with that, if you're someone that's listening in on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you can give us a thumbs up, you can leave us a positive comment, something happy, and what that does is it triggers the algorithms to show our podcast to more people that look for and listen to similar content and similar podcasts. Sometimes it's just down to the popular apps, don't show you to anyone when they're doing the searches because there's so many out there. So all of that helps. It's the Join the Fun Challenge. Let's grow the listener base. And then last but not least, with the Join the Fun Challenge, the link you can share is very, very easy. Comfortingvoice.com. That's it. Comfortingvoice.com, that's our website. If you haven't been over there, check it out. I've got some links to check out. I've got the coloring book Empire, I've got the Buy Me a Coffee, and the Thrive Shop. You can grab some Thrive gear. All purchases support the podcast. And all the episodes can be heard there. I've also got some kind of playlists I'm setting up for fan favorites, the different books we've read on Fridays, so you can just kind of binge those a little bit easier. And it's a good time. Go check it out. Comfortingvoice.com. Tell the others. Alright. Let's go through your sleep prep. We're gonna just kind of whiz through this. You already know the gig and you've probably already got comfortable by this point. But if you haven't, this is where you're gonna kick back, you're gonna put your feet up, you're gonna get in that sweet spot if you're in bed already, get your pillow all mushed up into that perfect shape. Make sure everything's at your fingertips and your listening device is set at that optimum volume. Yep. And when you're ready, give it a good stretch. Reach into your arms, your legs, hands, feet, through the fingers and toes, and then give the fingers and toes a good wiggle while you're still engaged in that stretch. Release the stretch, and you're gonna feel your whole body just kick into relaxation mode. It's awesome and it helps shrug off stress and toxicity from the day. You're gonna follow that up with a deep breath of air, inhale to about the count of four, hold it to about the count of three, top it off with another quick inhale, hold it for another count or two, and then exhale very slowly to about the count of eight if you can get that far. Cycle through those two a couple of times, stretch and breathe, stretch and breathe, stretch twice, breathe twice, do what works for you. You can even start with a deep breath of air, stretch a couple times, and then follow up with another deep breath. The beauty is in the ability to tailor it to your own needs. Good stuff. Okay. Let's take a look at you guys for this week's join the fun. We've got three good ones going on here. First on our list is Kenya. Kenya is home to a remarkable natural phenomenon called the Great Rift Valley, a vast geological feature that stretches across much of the country and was formed by the Earth's crust slowly pulling apart. Kenya is one of the world's leading producers of tea, and its highland tea growing regions are famous for producing exceptionally bright, flavorful teas. Kenya has produced some of the greatest long distance runners, and running is so deeply woven into some communities that children traditionally run long distances simply as part of everyday life. So if you're joining the fun from Kenya, you represent determination, endurance, and a country where the landscape itself is still being shaped by the forces of nature. And you people in Kenya that are runners, I've seen you in races and uh impressive. Some of these runners get up in the morning and run ten miles just to warm up for the race. It is it's mind boggling. They are fun to watch, and they make it look like it's nothing. It's just a breeze to them. Truly impressive. Okay, next on our list is Tunisia. Tunisia is home to the ancient city of Carthage, once one of the most powerful cities in the ancient Mediterranean world. Tunisia has an unusual lake called I'm gonna butcher this, oh my goodness. Shot El Gerid Shot El Gerid, the vast salt lake that can appear pink, white, or even reddish depending on the conditions and minerals in the water. Tunisia is the northernmost country in Africa and its landscape ranges from Mediterranean beaches and forests to enormous stretches of desert. So if you're joining the fun from Tunisia, you represent ancient ambition, surprising natural beauty, and a country where the Mediterranean meets the desert. Last on our list for this week is Barbados. Barbados is made almost entirely of coral limestone, unlike most Caribbean islands, which were formed primarily by volcanic activity. Barbados is home to Harrison's Cave, a remarkable underground cave system filled with flowing streams, waterfalls, and enormous chambers. Barbados has a fascinating connection to flying fish. They are so abundant around the island that flying fish became an important part of the cuisine and are affectionately associated with the island's identity. So if you're joining the fund from Barbados, you represent island ingenuity, unexpected natural wonders, and a place where even a fish can learn to fly. Awesome. Fun stuff. Wonderful. Do you know what else is wonderful? Lawn is wonderful. Lawn is actually the gift that keeps on giving, as far as I'm concerned. He is amazing. So let's take a minute and check out this week's Got A Minute, and when we come back, we'll check out the tea tag and fortune cookie slip and dive into this week's content.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Hey it's Lon, Got A Minute. It's that time again, and today I would like to speak with you about shutting down those coercive, manipulative gaslighting behaviors from other people. Behavioral research results shared on psychologytoday.com revealed one of the most effective ways to stop a manipulator is the use of a single phrase. That's interesting. Tell me more. Manipulative people thrive on emotional reactions, confusion, ambiguity. This simple phrase helps to neutralize that and change the balance of power in a conversation. With that phrase, that's interesting, you're acknowledging what's being said without actually validating or even challenging their claim. You're simply signaling, I heard you, I'm not rattled. This removes the emotional hook that many of the manipulators rely on. With the further phrase of tell me more, or variations like, what makes you say that, what led you to say that, you're cutting away any confusion and the ambiguity part in favor of curiosity. Why questions can feel accusatory and often trigger defensiveness. Stick with the more open-toned what statements in order to keep the exchange from escalating. If you find yourself in situations where you're being gaslit, guilt-tripped, or coerced, the best use for this simple phrase but subtly powerful phrase, if someone is indeed trying to gaslight you, it's when someone makes you question your memory or perception of reality. They might say, I never said that, you're remembering it wrong. You can reply, That's interesting. Tell me more about how you remember it, and follow it with, That's not how I recall, let's ask someone else who was there. That works because you're not having to defend your memory in the moment. You invite the other person to clarify and provide detail. Gaslighting loses power when it has to stand on its own specifics. When someone has to explain their version clearly, inconsistencies often surface, and the psychological pressure shifts off you and back onto the facts themselves. Now, if someone is trying to guilt trip you, we have all been there. Someone uses obligation or emotion to pressure you. They might say, After everything I've done for you, this is how you repay me. The reply again, that's interesting. What makes you say that? And a follow-up, you know, I appreciate what you've done, and this is still my decision. Or I can care about you but still choose differently. This works because the focus shifts from your supposed guilt to their reasoning. When you ask them to explain their logic and explain themselves, the emotional pressure and leverage often weakens. Coercion. Subtle coercion shows up when a manipulator ties cooperation to your loyalty or care. They might say, if you really cared, you'd agree with me. The reply again, that's interesting. What makes you think that? Caring doesn't always mean we have to agree on everything. Or I can care and still see it differently. This detaches your value from their request. You're not arguing about whether you care, you're asking how they arrived at their conclusion. That creates psychological space, and that's when manipulation loses traction. Manipulators rely on emotional reactions. The moment you slow the exchange down and get curious, that leverage weakens. Calm questions protect your clarity and your boundaries, and it shifts conversations towards facts instead of feelings. In difficult conversations, composure is often more powerful than confrontation. Thrive.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Thanks, Lon. Oh my gosh. I actually asked him to put something together for this because I keep talking to people that have the same problem over and over and over, and they're all similar. It may not be the exact same problem, but there's a lot of similarities, and it's in finding a job later in life in this economy. Oh my gosh. Things are crazy right now. So I wanted to just engage in some really good down to earth ramble chat mishmash goodness on finding work when you're older, starting over. Maybe you're stuck somewhere that you don't like. Whatever the case, this is for you. Or if you know someone in a position like this, or if you think it's just you and you're going crazy and you're having the worst time ever finding a job. Holy cow. So this is the drama with the tea tag and the fortune cookie slip. I had the the minim on the shoulder, she sees the cigar box, she's trying to get at it. We're wrestling with just trying to keep her away from it while I'm drawing the tea tag and fortune cookie slip, and I get the two most perfect ones ever. You can't make this up. And the battle was real with this little animal. She gets very determined. It's hilarious. But um here we go. From a small seed, a mighty trunk may grow. And that is a quote from Eschelus? I don't know how to pronounce this stuff, people. Um From a small seed, a mighty trunk may grow. And then your fortune cookie slip. Never despair. But if you do, work on in despair. Oh my gosh, how did this come up? For tonight, of all nights. And seriously, sometimes you just gotta keep plugging ahead until you get there. Even if you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders, you can get through this. That's what tonight is about. Now, for those of you who play number games like the lottery, whatever, um, here's your lucky numbers off of the back of the fortune cookie slip, which could come in use to somebody out there. Forty-eight, thirty-four, twenty-three, eight, forty-one, and forty-two. Well, that's a lot of forties. Alright, we'll put that in the archive receptacle. There we go. We're safe from the bee. She's in her toy box, so she has some toys she's rooting around in, and she has her little bell on a chain, and she's happy. So a little bit less aggression towards the archive receptacle tonight. So earlier in the podcast, I recorded a couple of episodes for those of you later in life trying to find employment, you know, especially when there's a a really tough economy, and you know, you're just looking for anything. Well then I recorded a follow-up on how that blew up on me because I thought I found the happiest place on earth. They hire anyone, they hire teenagers as their first job. It's a fun atmosphere, or so you would think, and it was the most toxic job ever. The management was just unreal. Well, I met other people closer to my age there, and they told me about some other jobs out there and and experiences they were having in this area, and it's just miserable in a lot of positions, especially these big brand name jobs you can go get, and they don't really require a resume, they just plug people into it. They're not always the most friendly environment, and keep in mind sometimes cranky people that are stressed out and they hate their jobs work their way into management and you know what rolls downhill, you end up miserable, they give you a miserable schedule, they make life miserable, and the pay is rotten. Oh my gosh. Sometimes you gotta, sometimes you gotta, but while you're looking for work, just understand it's not personal, it's just everywhere, okay? And you know, sometimes you might have to ask questions before you take jobs. Sometimes they put on a good presentation, you take the job and it's not what you expected. Get things in writing. The teenager job I keep referring to, they hired me on the premise that I would get twenty-five hours a week. Well, that wasn't the case. And then when I addressed it, they said, Yeah, we never said that. We never promised you more than one shift a week. So I never got it in writing. And that was the problem. If you don't have it in writing, they can change history on you. So be careful of that. And that's one of my biggest pieces of advice in all of this. I also just had another rotten, rotten, rotten experience in the the mortgage industry that I mentioned not that long ago. And I did a lot of work, I went through a training course, paid a lot of money for it, got licensed, ran into not one, but two horrible companies, terrible for beginners, don't do it, holy cow, and nothing in writing to protect my time or my frustrations with the situation. So I'll try to swing back to that if it makes sense. I don't want this to be like a dumping ground, you know what I mean? I just want you to know that sometimes you're gonna you're gonna run into some bad eggs out there, and they they look good on the outside, but you gotta crack into them and see what's on the inside before you find out they're rotten, and sometimes there's no way to know. There's a lot of toxic environments out there, and there's a lot of great environments out there. You just gotta find the great one and a great match for you, no matter what it is. So let's talk about something a whole lot of us are dealing with. Trying to find a job later in life, trying to find a better job, trying to survive a job you hate while you look for something else. And job hunting has changed dramatically. Let's face it, oh my gosh. I was in high school, graduated in 1986, and the world is almost like a different planet now compared to how everything worked back then. And a little fun trivia for you. Minimum wage when I graduated high school was $3.35 an hour. Okay, anyway. Um yeah. The problem is, you know, let's just use the the age range anyone over fifty. This also applies if you're over forty now. I'm fifty-eight. You can have decades of experience. Experience and still wind up staring at an online application, and it's asking you to create an account, upload a resume, enter your entire employment history, take a personality test, take a skills test, answer 17 questions, and then you have to identify that you're not a robot. So apparently after you survive adulthood for several decades, now we have to prove we can click a button or something. I don't know. It's weird to me. It's weird to a lot of people, but it is how it is. And pretty soon it turns into commonplace, believe it or not. You'll get through it. But if you're older, unemployed, underemployed, stuck somewhere miserable, it's easy to start taking all of this really personally, because you're the one experiencing it, therefore it feels pretty personal, doesn't it? Well, don't take the job hunt personally. Just don't. I know young people in their early twenties that have had the worst time ever getting even easy jobs. Um sometimes it's your area, sometimes it's the job market, sometimes it's just something you gotta go through. And then you never know what company is gonna make you go through three interviews for something minimum wage that you don't need experience for. So there's always a mismatch. Like they can afford to be picky, and they can afford to put you through the stress of this. So the most important thing I can say is rejection is not a judgment. You can be completely qualified, not get the job, sometimes you're not even seen. A lot of jobs have internal candidates for every position that they may have in mind, but they post them online just to be fair, but they have no intention of hiring an outsider. You can be searching jobs on websites like Indeed or Glassdoor or any of those, and and you find a job that was just posted in the past 24 hours. Be aware that job may have 300 applicants already. Some that may be listed for a week, they could easily have well over a thousand to two thousand applications, depending on what it is. That's not an exaggeration, that's absolutely very true. And then on top of it, they have computers that scan the resumes that come through, and they have keywords that are programmed in that they're supposed to look for. So if you don't have exact matches on your resume, a computer may have filtered you out and a human never saw you at all. They could have wanted someone with a different schedule. They could have wanted somebody that was a friend or relative of someone already working there. They may have changed their mind about the position and it's still posted. Here again, they could have picked someone else and it probably was someone from within. Or maybe it's a company that has temps and temp to hire, and it's that sort of thing. You never know, they don't tell you that stuff. There's one thing about all of it, it's frustrating, it's exhausting. But on top of that, it starts feeling like you're too old, you're not good enough, no one wants you, and your career is over. We'll talk about that in a second, too, because some of that's true. And don't forget, job hunting gets psychologically brutal when every rejection becomes evidence there's something wrong with you. At least that's what your head's telling you, right? Try to think, instead of it being personal against you, that wasn't the match I was looking for anyway. Start getting into that habit. You're not trying to convince every employer in the country to hire you. You're trying to find the one employer who needs what you can do for them. Now I will say, a lot of companies, if they see that you have been with a company for a long time, you've been loyal to one company, a lot of people that's a signal to them that you're not willing to change, you're not willing to learn new things, and that's another obstacle, it's very hard to get past because it's very real. And that goes hand in hand with the age thing. A lot of companies just assume that if you're over a certain age, especially if you've been at a job for 10 or more years, you're not trainable, you're not willing to change, you're probably past your prime, and you're probably just held on to out of habit. Like they make all these assumptions, they do. And it's just something that you have to get past. Do you really want to be at that job if they're gonna be critical of you for your age the whole time? It's best to get into that habit. That wasn't the match. Don't take it personal. It still sucks and it's still hard. So don't underestimate how much of a tough skin you've got to grow for this. If you're an older worker, please know you have something that can't be learned from a YouTube video. You've got experience. Maybe you've dealt with those difficult customers, difficult coworkers, difficult bosses, difficult employees, difficult students. You've probably solved problems nobody trained you to solve. You've probably learned how to show up under conditions that most people give up on. You've learned that most workplace emergencies aren't necessarily emergencies, or if they are, you can survive them. You've probably learned how to keep functioning when someone else is having a meltdown. And you've probably learned something that's incredibly valuable that Lon and I talk about pretty often perspective. You've lived long enough to know that one bad day isn't the end of the world, one bad boss isn't every boss, and one rejected application isn't the end of the job search. Experience doesn't become worthless just because the workplace has changed. So keep all of that in mind. All of you out there hunting for a job, especially if you're over 40, if you're over 50, especially if you're over 60, I know you're out there, and if you know someone like that out there, you know, join the fun. Tell them about this episode. It might save their sanity. So here's a really cool idea. A friend of mine that I met at the miserable teenager job. We're still friends, and that person just turned 23. I'm 58. Wonderful friendship. We provide perspective for each other, we chit-chat, we text each other. Sometimes I learn a lot from the younger crowd. And this young friend of mine went through business classes and uh graduated a local college here. So something got mentioned in the two of us with our quests for work. Check local community centers, libraries, and even senior centers for beginner computer classes. And some of these that have classes that are targeted towards seniors will also let any age in. It's just targeted towards seniors, and they're gonna teach you some basics, tricks, tips, and shortcuts that sometimes those of us with experience never even learned, right? Um, just basics that sometimes we just skim over when we're younger and learning computers or learning stuff on the job when we never learn shortcuts. So a lot of compute a lot of communities offer classes that are either free or extremely affordable, basic computer skills, smartphone skills, Microsoft Office, email, internet basics. Sometimes resume and job search assistants do not automatically assume something advertised as senior means you can't go to it because you're younger. But the beauty of it is they break stuff down so that us older people can grasp it. Now, I've been dealing with computers most of my adult life, but I'm not an expert. I always learn simple stuff, right? Everything's always changing, and a lot of people my age range never learned computers, never had to, and feel like the world bypassed them, so it gets intimidating, and these classes can teach in a way that's very easy to absorb and learn. There's a lot of value in that. And this can be particularly useful because technology surrounding job hunting has changed completely. Twenty years ago, you could walk into a business with a resume, you could just ask for a job application and sit there and fill it out. Now you need three different passwords, a PDF, an online profile, a headshot, a resume loaded in one place and typed manually into another, an assessment, a video interview, specific equipment, um, memberships on social media like LinkedIn. There's just all this stuff people expect out of you. And it can totally make your head spin. So just remember that learning the current system isn't admitting that you're behind so much as learning the rules to a whole current game. Because I've been trying to put in job apps for two years and it feels like it keeps changing. So one of the biggest changes in place nowadays is called the Applicant Tracking System, ATS. Softwares scan applications for keywords and qualifications, and a resume that's beautifully written for a human being to read may not perform well if it doesn't contain the language the employer programmed their computer to search for. So one thing you can do when you're looking at a job listing is look to see if they repeatedly mention certain skills or software, because those terms might matter. And I've even heard of people that change their resume for each application and just have like a resume creation tool. Um then they use AI to you know ask questions and assess it, and they take the extra time to do it. I don't know if it's effective or not. So um lean into learning some basic AI too. Sometimes if you learn how to craft the correct prompts, you can get the right information out of it, and it becomes very helpful. Don't be surprised if an application for a job includes personality assessments, situational questions, skill tests, automated interviews, and recorded video responses. We are in a bizarre new era where humans use AI to write resumes, companies use AI to screen resumes, humans use AI to prepare for interviews, and somewhere along the way a computer is deciding whether or not another computer-generated resume sounds sufficiently human enough. Welcome to the future, guys. We're here, and you gotta just learn how to navigate it. You don't have to like it. So for those of you in my age category or an older age category, and you're listening to this, I've got a few things that you might not expect. And what am I talking about? These are a few things that may seem completely harmless, but they may not actually help you. Don't talk too much about how things used to be done. Don't say stuff like at my old company, we didn't do it that way. Because it may be true, maybe your old company had a different system, but the interviewer is generally interested in whether or not you can function in their system. Keep that in mind. Be very careful about complaining about former employers. Be careful with statements like, I'm terrible with computers, I'm looking for something easy, I'm just trying to make it to retirement, I don't know how much longer I want to work. You don't really need to tell them that. Don't be that forthcoming. It won't help you. And even if you're just joking around, statements like that can give an employer an impression that you don't intend to give, right? So don't even joke about it. And here's another one you may not realize. Don't give them your whole life story. Don't give them anything personal unless it comes up. You may have 40 years of experience. It doesn't mean they need 40 years of a resume. Focus on what's relevant to the job you're actually applying for and how you're gonna fit in. One big thing, here again, they worry that the older crowd can't learn or isn't willing to learn. So make sure that you're always looking for new ways to educate yourself on stuff. And here's another thing people forget these days. You're interviewing the job as much as the job is interviewing you. This is especially important if you're trying to escape a toxic workplace. If you're desperate for a job, it's easy to think, oh my gosh, I got an opportunity, I'm just gonna take it. But don't forget to ask yourself, do I actually want to work here? You might not want to. Pay attention during the interview. How do the employees communicate or talk to each other? How do the employees look? Do people while you're there look miserable and stressed out? Is the interviewer constantly complaining about previous employees? Does fast-paced environment actually mean they're chronically understaffed? Does wear many hats mean you're going to be doing three people's jobs? Does we're like a family mean that nobody has boundaries? Sometimes the interview is going to tell you more about the workplace than the job description does. And just be careful how you formulate your questions. I get a lot I've heard a lot of people in the past say that they're afraid to ask about the compensation and the benefits. But if you think about it, that's why you're there. And when they ask what questions you have, just say, yeah, I'd be like, I would like to know how many hours a week is typical, what's expected, um, what's the wage. Does this company offer benefits? If so, what are they? And one important one that I've heard over and over and over and over is salaried positions. You have to be careful with this because if they expect you to work for one wage, but you're going to be there 80 hours a week, you may be averaging less than minimum wage if you're in a salaried position. So you have to get something in writing. What are the average hours I will be expected to work? Do you ever compensate for overtime in conditions where you expect me to work lots and lots of hours? Do I get advanced notice on this? You just ask questions. But sometimes you may have to feel out the interviewer. Does it seem appropriate to ask that? Are you even going to bother with the job? A few things to consider. Now let's talk about if you already have a job, but it's really toxic, you absolutely hate it. Management is rotten. You're underpaid. Maybe you feel trapped because you need the money. So for any of you in a situation like that, just remember a paycheck is not a life sentence. You don't necessarily have to quit tomorrow, but sometimes the smartest thing you can do is keep your paycheck for now, keep going in, quietly start looking for something else, get your resume updated, take a class, explore different industries, and apply when you find something truly promising. Try not to do it in a desperate panicked state of mind. Try to stay a little grounded through the whole process. Your current job can simply be the one thing that's funding your escape. Remember that. Don't let a terrible manager become the voice in your head telling you that you're incompetent. And don't forget, a toxic workplace can make a perfectly capable person start believing that they're the problem. Sometimes the problem is simply that you're working in a place that makes you miserable and you're being gaslit constantly, and it happens. Look sideways, don't just look up. One of the best job search tricks is to stop looking only for your old job title. Look for the skills underneath of it. Administrative experience can translate into scheduling, customer service, order processing, data entry, sales support, office coordination. Retail experience can translate into customer support, inventory, operations, training, merchandising, purchasing. Manufacturing can translate into quality control, documentation, logistics, and production coordination. Your old job title is not your entire identity or your entire skill set. Sometimes the better job is hiding behind a different title you never considered before. Here's a few things that will help. Keep a master resume with everything you've done, and then make different or shorter versions for different types of jobs. Have a simple professional email address. Keep track of where you've applied. Don't spend six hours applying for one job. Don't let one rejection ruin an entire day. Take a look at smaller companies. Look locally. Look at organizations you wouldn't normally consider. Check libraries, community centers, community colleges, and workforce development programs. Learn one new technology skill at a time, and don't underestimate the value of asking what am I already good at that somebody needs? If you're unemployed, it does not mean that you're unemployable. If you're underemployed, it does not mean that your current job is a measurement of your potential. If you're miserable at a job, being stuck today does not mean you're stuck forever. If you're older, you're not obsolete because the rules changed. And if you've ever been rejected over and over again, do not turn a pile of employer decisions into a verdict on your personal worth. They don't know you. Just know that somewhere out there there will be an employer who's currently dealing with someone who doesn't show up, doesn't answer the phone, doesn't do their job, and has to be told the same thing six to twelve times, and they're just looking for someone that'll do their job. They may be looking for you. You just haven't found each other yet. Keep looking. Learn what you need to learn. Don't take every rejection personally. And if you're stuck in a miserable job right now, remember this is just temporary. Something's waiting for you out there. You don't have to stay here. Go find a better situation and start looking now. No time like the present, right? I'm telling you guys, it's hard out there. I've been leaning into AI. I've finally been asking the right questions to have AI tools help me write the perfect resume. And what I did is made the AI tool interview me. I told it what I wanted and asked it to ask all the perfect questions to help me write the perfect resume for what I was looking for. And by golly, I think I'm I'm getting somewhere this time. It also gave me a whole bunch of tips on how to research the different companies so I don't get burned again. There are some toxic environments out there. Just because someplace has been in business for a long time does not mean it's run well, and it doesn't mean their whole staff is happy either. Alright, people, I'm gonna keep you up to date on my adventures in the mortgage industry or wherever I end up. Not sure. I actually have written down a lot of my skills and I have a couple AI tools helping me think outside of the box for other industries that I might be able to get hired in. So I would like to stay in the mortgage industry. I find it fun, I like it, I find it challenging in a great way, but I gotta find that perfect match. So tell you what, I am not shutting my head off to anything at this point. And then I think the last thing I would like to conclude with on this is don't underestimate how people can be kind of dismissive of your stress and your situation. Comes with the territory. A lot of times you're gonna find your friends just don't know what to do, so they kind of shrug it off or it makes them uncomfortable. They may change the subject quickly. Learn how to just find topics and hobbies and things that you can kind of balance the negativity with so you don't lose sight of yourself and you keep a good positive attitude, even if you just read books or something. Alright, that's all I got for you tonight. I will see you back here on Friday for our Friday night vintage bedtime story. We just started a new book, and it's already proving to be quite the fun book. I'm very excited about it. So until then, sleep tight, good night, and bye bye.