Layoff to Freedom: The Blueprint (Feat. Trevor Houston)

Franchise Coach Giuseppe Grammatico sits down with job networking expert Trevor Houston for this full episode to discuss how corporate executives can achieve financial and time freedom. Learn the crucial mindset shifts, the 1 secret to beating the resume black hole, how to get your finances in order, and the powerful strategy of using a podcast for networking and career reinvention. If you're tired of the corporate rat race, this is your blueprint for a second act. 

Choose the right path at https://ggthefranchiseguide.com

About the Guest: Trevor Houston is an expert in job networking and career transitions.
Check out the Who You Know Job Networking Show: https://whoyaknow.show/
Connect with Trevor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevorhouston/

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only. Franchising involves risk and careful consideration should be given before making any decisions.


00:00 Introduction and Networking Insights
00:31 Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast
00:58 Guest Introduction: Trevor Houston
01:25 Trevor's Career Journey
02:25 Transition to Financial Services
05:14 The Importance of Mentorship
07:39 Helping Job Seekers and Career Transition
10:46 Building a Personal Brand
16:15 Franchise Freedom Book Offer
17:14 Facing Financial Realities
18:17 The Importance of Budgeting and Outsourcing
18:29 Three Key Questions for Outsourcing Decisions
20:10 The Impact of AI on Time Management
21:13 Ideal Clients and Corporate Layoffs
22:41 Overcoming Age Discrimination in the Job Market
24:08 The Who Ya Know Show Podcast
28:48 The Benefits of Starting a Podcast
33:14 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

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The Franchise Freedom: Discover Your New Path to Freedom Through Franchise Ownership, Book by Giuseppe Grammatico https://ggthefranchiseguide.com/book or purchase directly on ...

Transcript

Trevor Houston: 0:00

If they ever landed a job, they would tell their story. And it was always a who moment. It was one dot connected to somebody they knew from the past, this, that, and the other. And I was like, wow, okay. It's all about relationships, connections and networking. You apply online and your resume goes in the black hole. Now with AI it's gotten even worse because everybody is a hundred percent candidate. I love helping people overcome age discrimination because age discrimination really is just biases based around negative stereotypes. Negative stereotypes are based in truth, but they aren't the truth.

0:32

Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast, where you can escape the corporate trap through franchise ownership. Here's your host, Giuseppe gr, the franchise guide.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 0:41

Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast. I'm your host, Giuseppe Grammatico, your franchise guide, the show where we help corporate executives experience time and financial freedom. Thanks for joining us today. I'm very excited for our show today. We have Trevor Houston. Trevor, welcome to the show.

Trevor Houston: 0:55

Hey, I appreciate you having me.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 0:57

Yeah, this is awesome. People they were telling me they wanted guess, I guess they were sick of hearing from me. So we decided to to mix it up a little bit, hear different perspectives, different business models and things like that. You're a busy guy. We wanna definitely hear about your background, but before we dive in, you're the host of the Who Ya Know Job Networking S how. Founder of ClearPath Wealth Strategies. So you're a busy guy, you got a lot on your plate. Tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into the business you're in today.

Trevor Houston: 1:23

Yeah. My professional career started actually in automotive sales. This was about 10, 15 years ago, and did really well. I was the top producer in the automotive industry six years in a row that I was there and was making a lot of money very early on in life. Then there was some corporate politics and some things that I didn't really agree with that were going on in the automotive industry. The GM was a little bit of a shady guy. He started changing around the pay plan and he didn't really like me because whenever he would do things I would voice my opinion. He wanted a yes man, and that really wasn't me. So when they would change pay plans and I've got to voiced my opinion about it. So anyways, he didn't really like me, the GM there, and I knew that as long as he was there, there was no way I was ever gonna be elevated. I was their top producer six years in a row I kept hitting that glass ceiling over and over and they wouldn't promote me. And I'm like, I gotta figure out how to get outta this car business. I gotta escape. So I started the journey of transitioning into financial services. That took a little while'cause you gotta do some studying and you gotta get your licenses but I wanted to make sure I was ready when I left. What was interesting was around the time when I was about to leave the auto industry, a position opened up and those didn't come come very often. There was a finance position that came up and I wanted to move into finance or into sales management. Finally this opportunity opens up and I asked the GM, I said,"Hey, we talked about this a couple years ago. It wasn't the right fit back then, but I'm curious what your thoughts are now that this position's opened up." He said,"Well, that's the good news coz I got 90 days to make a decision." And I was like, okay, 90 days. He said that to me, it was really, he wanted me to jump through hoops. He wanted me to be a yes man. He wanted me to be a puppet for 90 days while he was still looking at other options and probably gonna hire somebody else. that was gonna be the end result of that. When he said that, I was like, That's unfortunate you said 90 days. If you don't know after six years, you're not gonna know after 90 days." So I gave him my two weeks notice right then and there I was like, I'm out. And I took that leap of faith and bet on myself and an entrepreneur and business owner. Now I do financial services that was many years ago. But I would say the lesson in that is knowing when enough is enough. A lot of people ask me that I deal with people in career transition all the time. They ask me like,"When should I leave a company? When do I know when that's a good time to leave?" And for me it was just hitting that glass ceiling over and over. When somebody was limiting my potential, that's when I knew that it was time to go. So yeah, that's a little bit of my background. Now I do financial services and I help people that are going through career transitions; all that good stuff.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 3:53

I can absolutely relate without getting into my story. I've told the story more than a few times. I think we all know and it's just I got the job, maybe I should stick it out. Maybe, owning a business may be too risky or you start to make up all these excuses. I think the writing's on the wall. You basically know, but you're just almost justifying it. I know I was. Glass ceiling, same exact thing, and never getting the promotion and fear. Yeah. It's overwhelm. And then you start going online and then, with the amount of information we have nowadays, I think you just get overwhelmed. You need that person to guide you through and step by step, not figure it out all at once. And that's why I love the name of your show. It's one of my actual, one of my favorite books from, forget when it came out, Dan Sullivan. It's Who, not How. And that really struck a chord. It's a very simple book, quick read. And when I look at Who Ya Know A Job Networking Show, it's like that's exactly it. Who can help you? Who can coach you that's been through the wringer. That's gone through maybe a similar situation as yourself, that can really help you out. And I think that really expedites things and really puts it into perspective, as opposed to, I'm reading this article step by step, what I need to do. So I think that that makes a huge difference.

Trevor Houston: 5:00

That's exactly what it was, too. So when I was thinking about making that transition, where did financial services even come from? My financial advisor! My financial advisor who just so happened to work in the automotive industry and he left. So I watched, when I first got in the auto industry, I watched this guy who was a director of finance in the automotive industry leave. And why would someone leave that job? A great job. a job I wanted. he left. Anyways, he ended up becoming my financial advisor and he tried to recruit me many years. He was like,"Hey, come on over. Come on over. And I was like,"Nah, I'm good man. I'm good." I was making all the money in the car business. I was doing well. But eventually after I kept hitting that glass ceiling All right, let's talk." It was a who moment. That was one of my first lessons in who, and he helped me. He was a mentor for me, guide me on what to do, how to get that transition going. It wasn't like, Hey, just come on over and just jump, just Quit. It wasn't like that. he actually helped guide me through the process so I didn't fail. And mentored me through that as well, which was really cool. Because he went through it. he knew exactly what it was like. I think that is the best mentors are the ones who have been through the fire themselves, they know what it's like and they have empathy for you and they can help guide you get you there quicker.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 6:14

Great. With that being said, those mentors there, there's plenty of people. You have to be very selective in who you ask advice for. You don't just ask advice to anyone. We're in the franchise space. It's essentially, we call it a business on training wheels. You're gonna ask people out of own a business, own a franchise if they've never owned it. It's hard for them to really share their perspective on the ins and outs of being an entrepreneur. And I'm not saying people don't have good advice to give you, but it's hard to relate if they've never actually gone down that path. Just you've never owned the business. It's hard to describe the initial stages. Maybe not being able to pay yourself or an employee leaving. It's really hard to relate. So I think being selective who your mentors are, is something I didn't realize. I was asking just everyone for their opinion to realize I just had all these, all this great feedback, but I'm like, what do I even do with it? And how do I sift through it? At this stage, everyone should be cautious, right? Everyone should be prepared. Layoffs. You've hearing about these layoffs every single day. So what's some advice you'd give to someone to better prepare themselves in the event of a layoff or maybe they decide to leave that job because it's not working out. Or maybe they're asking them to go back into the office and they prefer to work from home.

Trevor Houston: 7:22

Yeah, that's a great question. First of all, I'd like to maybe touch on how I got into helping the job seeker community in the first place. where all that came because I'm very different in financial services. Not many people do what I do. I also do career strategy and I help people recover their income. A lot of people are like,"What? How does that make sense?" But the reason why I started that was because I went through a layoff in 2009, during the great recession, That was pre automotive industry. I was selling Harley's at that point, and I got caught up in a layoff'cause the economy wasn't doing well I remember what it was like. I remember feeling like I was running outta money; the anxiety, the fear, the stress. I remember all of that. Fast forward, I get into financial services and I came across this group. It was a job networking group at this church. I walked in there and I saw this group of probably a hundred or so senior level executives. Probably in between age 45 to 55 was the demographic that was there. Seasoned professionals. I'm in my late twenties and I see this group and I just identified with them because of the anxiety they were having around finding employment. And it was taking them a lot longer because of ageism. Man. So I was like, I need to figure out how to help them. And here I am as a new entrepreneur. I'm out here learning my elevator pitch and learning how to network and learning all of this new venture stuff. And they were doing the same thing. They were doing their elevator pitch and they were networking and connecting and there was a lot of synergy there. I was like, okay, so I'm connecting dots. If they ever landed a job, they would tell their story. And it was always a who moment. It was one dot connected to somebody they knew from the past, this, that, and the other. And I was like, wow, okay. It's all about relationships, connections and networking. I thought, I don't know how to really help these people, but if I connect with a bunch of recruiters and hiring managers, if I just connect the dots, then I am helping them. Right? So I started building a network of decision makers that could actually hire these people. I was connecting those dots and people started landing jobs. And that was really cool. I got recognized for it and was invited onto a podcast, my very first podcast appearance ever was back in 2017 from a recruiter and they invited me on to talk about the impact that I was having and doing. And that's what sparked the show. After I left that podcast, I was like, I gotta do my own. The Who S how was birthed in 2018, and what I started doing there was inviting recruiters and hiring managers and career coaches and anybody that could help job seekers. I would invite them on the show and I would interview them. Through that process, after hundreds of episodes of that, I learned strategies. I learned how to do it, too. I learned how to help these job seekers and I started having my own unique perspectives, ideas and thoughts around how I would do it if I was in their shoes. So I started teaching strategy and those strategies all of a sudden started working. So it was like, wow. And then I started getting picked up on the news and, Forbes and all these different publications were picking me up because of how many people were landing jobs through strategies. Especially during COVID, holy smokes. I helped so many people during COVID because they all got furloughed and let go and all of that. That's a little bit of backstory of how that all came about. But to answer your question on what would you do? I'll tell you that one of the biggest things help you is your personal brand and marketing. You hear it all the time. You hear the job search is sales. People aren't getting the opportunity to sell themselves anymore. They're not even getting the opportunity'cause of the way the system is set up. You apply online and your resume goes in the black hole. Now with AI it's gotten even worse because everybody is a hundred percent candidate. Because they're putting their resume into ChatGPT and matching it with the job description. So everyone in the pile, a stack in the, in the application pile is a hundred percent match.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 10:57

Because of the AI. AI, yeah. It's crazy. It is crazy.

Trevor Houston: 11:00

When you have that issue, again, they're not getting the opportunity to sell themselves. It's made it really challenging so what you need to do is build a personal brand and market yourself online on LinkedIn. What that does is multiple things. Number one, complete strangers are gonna find you. You're gonna get inbound leads from recruiters and hiring managers who are searching for the right fit, right? They're gonna see you. Number two, it's gonna ignite your own network we just talked about. It's all about who you know. And you've got people in your own network right now who have no idea that you're searching for a job. Okay? And if you put a simple video out there, I help them create video resumes. That's just one of the things we do. You would be just blown away at some of the results of a simple video resume posting that online. All of a sudden, people in their own network reach out. I had one in in my mastermind today. Exactly what he did. He posted it. A lady he worked with 10 years ago reached out to him and said,"Oh, hey, there's this job over here at the company I'm at now. You should apply for it." He applied for it. She connected him with the recruiter. Boom. Put in a word for him, all because she saw his video resume. So that would be one of the first things I would do. really look at what problem you solve for a company, who you solve it for, and how you solve it. And then let's go market that online crazy, right? Get the awareness out there because no one can make a decision on you if they don't know you exist.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 12:15

I love that. in the age of AI and people are using it. Your personal brand is what stands out, but it not only stands out, it's with you for life. So if you go from the automotive business to financial services and now you're in podcasting or whatever you're doing, basically it's human to human marketing. It's that personal brand that's always gonna follow you. So whether you're going from the automobile industry to investments to financial services, to podcasting, to owning businesses, that's something that is always gonna, really follow you. It's your brand. People can't take that away. But it's a differentiator because I've been out of the employment game for a while. I've been self-employed for just over two decades, and I didn't even know a video resume makes complete sense reading a boring resume. It's like, all right, I'm reading the resume. They all read the same. And now with AI, but that video, you definitely don't wanna generate it with AI. I'm assuming unless you disagree, but it really shows, who that person is. I think the passion comes through. I think the interest and who you're gonna be really working with a game changer. But I've been hearing this human to human marketing, really marketing yourself and that's really what differentiates you and makes you stand out amongst the crowd. I hear that all the time.

Trevor Houston: 13:21

Absolutely. I had another guy in my mastermind today he got lucky. I always ask when they get interviews, I always ask'em,"Hey, did you where did it come from?"

Giuseppe Grammatico: 13:30

Right.

Trevor Houston: 13:30

Was this an inbound opportunity? Did it find you? Or did you apply online? Did you network? How did you get to it? Are you tracking those things?" And he said,"this one I found online and I applied. And I got a call." I said,"all right, you got lucky." And he goes,"I did tailor my resume using chat GPT. and I said,"hold on. Everybody's doing that." I don't want you to feel like you did anything above and beyond in that scenario. Hey, good job. I'm glad for you, I'm happy for you. you got the interview. That's all that matters, right? good job. But you haven't done anything above and beyond. You just did what everyone else is doing right now. Everyone is a perfect candidate. They're a hundred percent matched'cause they put their resume in chat GPT. Right now you're fitting in. You're not standing out. what I want you to do now is let's take it above and beyond and let's make sure, now that you have the opportunity to interview, let's close the fricking deal. Let's stand out and make sure you are the absolute go-to candidate for this job, right?"Because you got lucky on this one. I wanna be honest with you." he, and he was, oh" I'm like, most of the time when you just apply, it goes nowhere.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 14:30

Crickets. Yeah. You're not hearing anything. How many people apply. probably received thousands of submissions for that job. So what's the standout? the video is big. The personal brand. When I work with individuals I help people, transition into franchise ownership, but it's not always the right fit. really it's helping essentially in career transition what's next or if the business is the right fit. Maybe it's something down the road. I talk a lot about financials get your financial, get the house in order, right? Is your, if you're married, is your spouse working? If you're the only income source I'm working with someone right now that they're just not happy with the industry. The job, the jobs pay really well, and it's why don't you explore other opportunities and maybe take a job, a pay cut and work for a local employer, maybe where the hours aren't? That's crazy. You don't have this long commute and you can work 40 hours and focus on this high side hustle, this business that you wanna eventually launch, but get the financials in order, right? You gotta know your expenses. You gotta know exactly what's covering what and make sure there's enough there. I talk a lot about that. What else should they be considering, in preparation in the event of maybe they haven't lost their job, but they're anticipating a layoff. Hey guys. Thanks for listening. I hope you're enjoying the show. As a thank you for being a valued listener, wanted to offer you a free copy of my book, franchise Freedom. This book was written back in 2020, and it's my exact blueprint in helping you find that perfect franchise. I wrote it based off my experiences and wanted to pass that along to you. Wanna chat today? You could book a call directly on our website. Top right. Side of that screen and you can schedule a 20 minute call. We'll dive into if a franchise is a good fit. I help you get qualified and figure out what that perfect franchise match may be. So I hope you take me up on my offer. Once again, franchise Freedom. Download the book today for free or book a call with me directly, and we'll help you bypass all that information you find online. Most importantly, figuring out. If a franchise is the right fit, and then figuring out what that perfect franchise looks like. So thanks again for listening to the show and back to the show.

Trevor Houston: 16:41

I love that you're asking this question because. From my experience working with everyday Americans, they put their head in the sand and they're avoiding these topics. They really are. And I've done a lot of thinking on why that is, especially when a person tries to talk to'em about it. they don't know who to talk to. They don't know who to ask questions as we were talking about earlier, You want to ask a mentor that has experience, right? That actually knows what they're talking about. So they don't really know who that is. They don't know who to trust, who to talk to. It's a sensitive subject. There's also some shame around it. People typically don't feel like they are where they should be, no matter where they are. Let's, even if you have a million dollars, you want 2 million dollars. So people always have this internal shame that they're not where they should be. And I, I think some people get embarrassed of where they are. Especially if things aren't in order. Things aren't in the right order'cause they haven't really been paying attention. They just neglect it and it's easier to just kick that can down the road and procrastinate. Having the tough conversations and really getting things in order. So that's what I see. And it's sad. It's really sad. It's things as simple like what you were just talking about is a simple budget.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 17:45

You would think it's common sense, but it's not.

Trevor Houston: 17:47

And they have technology for that. They got apps for that. They got tools for that to make it easy. And people still struggle with that. I try to encourage people, there's three questions you should ask yourself if you're considering looking at potentially getting some help in this area. And this goes to outsourcing. I'm not even talking about just financial services. Let's get off of that for a second. Let's just talk about outsourcing anything

Giuseppe Grammatico: 18:10

Right.

Trevor Houston: 18:10

to someone else. Should you get help, should you get professional help? And there's really three questions you should ask yourself. Number one is, do you have an understanding of what you're trying to do? Whether it's financial services or maybe it's cutting your own lawn, we could go to basics. Should you hire someone to cut your lawn? All right. First question you should ask yourself is, do you know, do you understand it? I can cut my own lawn so I get it. I understand it, right? Second question. do you enjoy it? Okay. For me? Yeah, I know how to mow my lawn, but I don't enjoy it.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 18:37

Yeah

Trevor Houston: 18:37

so I might wanna consider hiring somebody because if I don't enjoy it, I'm probably not gonna do it the right way. It probably won't get done as frequently as it should be done. So maybe I should consider and then the third one is do you have the time And again, for me, the time. So I hire somebody, I outsource it cause they're gonna get it done better.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 18:56

All right.

Trevor Houston: 18:56

And so those are the three questions I usually tell people anytime they're thinking about hiring someone else. Do you understand it? And when we're talking about the finance there, a lot of people don't understand it. Just to be transparent. they don't teach it in school. So a lot of people don't understand it, but let's say they do, they have a good understanding of it. Do you enjoy it? For a lot of people, it's no. Do you have time? And I think time is the biggest one. We're all busy,

Giuseppe Grammatico: 19:18

Yep.

Trevor Houston: 19:18

right? I don't care if you're working, not working. we're busy, life's busy, everything's go.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 19:23

With all the advancements you think, we'd be more efficient, but I feel like we just have more, we just fill it in with more stuff. I can absolutely relate.

Trevor Houston: 19:30

I was just thinking about this the other day I was just talking about it this morning on a different show that I have. I was talking about with AI. Yes, it saves me time in a lot of areas, but it also expands opportunities in a lot of areas. So there's more for me to do. I don't feel like it's really saving me time because now everything has just been expanded, what I can do. The possibilities, the opportunities, everything is expanded. now it's oh, I could literally do anything.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 19:57

It's like a web. You start off with one thing and now all of a sudden I got five business ideas and I'm like, all right, maybe I have the admin functions and it's doing some research for me, but now maybe it's more important things I'm working on. But yeah it's this crazy spiderweb. It branches out.

Trevor Houston: 20:11

Exactly. is it really saving you time? No. I don't think so. Not for me anyways. Maybe if you're just using it generically, but as a business owner, I feel like I'm always in ChatGPT.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 20:22

Yeah. ChatGPT and Gemini. Now I have, I got two options and I'm comparing which, which response I like better. When is a good time for someone to reach out to you? Who is your ideal client that you work with?

Trevor Houston: 20:33

Great question. My target audience are typically people that get caught up in big corporate layoffs. Maybe they worked at a company 20 years or so and they worked their way up that corporate ladder. They got that nice fancy title and they got up there. And then right before retirement, company says, to go. That happens because a lot of these companies are stock owned companies and when things are volatile they'll make financial decisions to to balance the books a little bit.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 21:01

And blame the shareholders. We're publicly traded, the shareholders voted to to cut back on cost. They want the dividends

Trevor Houston: 21:08

and they call it restructuring.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 21:11

Restructuring, yes.

Trevor Houston: 21:11

Right? And so where do they get that money? They gotta go. They typically will go at the higher salaries. Where are the higher salaries typically? What's the age demographic of the higher salaries is usually 45 plus. Right before retirement. Those folks, man, I tell you they get it rough. They get right before, they put their life into a company, no loyalty. Get the ax. Now they're having a hard time getting back to work because typically in those scenarios, some of their skills may be outdated. They gotta refresh. Get some of their designations, get some new certifications. They gotta bring themselves back to market, get themselves back up. And then when it comes to social media and LinkedIn and personal branding, they're just a fish outta water with this stuff.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 21:52

It's almost like starting all over again.

Trevor Houston: 21:54

Absolutely. They just don't know where to start. I can help expedite that process for them. I love helping people overcome age discrimination because age discrimination really is just biases based around negative stereotypes. Negative stereotypes are based in truth, but they aren't the truth. It means there's some commonalities, there's some reasons why people are have bias against them. It could be slower to adapt. They're not quick with the new tools. They're maybe not so great with technology. There's these negative stereotypes. So we just have to show the employer very quickly that all of that doesn't apply to them. There are ways to do that. We're gonna use technology where I'm gonna show them like,"Hey we need to overcome those objections, right? We need to show that they basically judged a book by its cover." So really, that's my target audience. People that are really, maybe they're senior level executives, they climbed up the corporate ladder. It's gonna be a little bit tougher for those folks, but I love helping them recover and rebuild and turn their setback into their comeback.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 22:48

Absolutely. I love that. Where's the best website or way of contacting and what area do you cover? Is this virtually? Is it anywhere in the country?

Trevor Houston: 22:55

Yeah. Great questions. Thank you so much for that. Yeah, I would love for them just to connect with me on LinkedIn and if they can mention this podcast right. That way I know where they're coming from that would be amazing. But just connect with me on LinkedIn, Trevor Houston. I help people all over the country virtually. I'm located in Dallas, Texas area. And so I do a lot of local work here in the community, but if you're in other areas of the country, I can still help you. So connect with me. Love to support you any way I can.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 23:20

Awesome. I'm gonna put the LinkedIn in the link in the show notes. If people wanna headstart and dive in. Talk to us a little bit about where people can find your show'cause I was really impressed. I saw some great guests as we were reviewing the show.

Trevor Houston: 23:31

And you're gonna be one of them very soon, so we're gonna get you on.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 23:33

That's right. Yeah. That's soon. Yeah.

Trevor Houston: 23:35

So I'm excited to hear more about your journey and your story. Just before we got started this interview, we have a lot more synergy than I thought, so that's awesome. The Who S how Podcast, you can check that out on, on any of the podcast channels. Apple, Spotify, we're on all the channels. You can go connect with it on YouTube if you want. A lot of people like to watch the episodes. So you can do that as well. The focus there, it started originally career only. That was the focus when we started. I've been doing this podcast now for eight years, going on nine years. Honestly, I'll be transparent. I kind of got bored of the career stuff. If you talk about it for I think, 600 episodes.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 24:10

You can only talk about it so much.

Trevor Houston: 24:12

Yeah. I had to keep it fresh. For myself and for the audience, it was what they needed too. I started recognizing that the job seeker needed motivation and inspiration just as much as they needed the tips and the tricks and the strategies, the tactical stuff. If your mindset is in the dumps, I can teach you all the tactical strategies in the world, but you're not gonna apply. You won't do it. And so I was like, all right, I need to lift these people up. So let me start getting some motivational speakers. I started getting top speakers and thought leaders and experts and bringing them on and lifting them up and really it's morphed now. It's more of a self-development podcast instead of just career focused. What I say is that we help people with their wealth, health, business, career, relationships, and faith. So it's really the circle of life. If you've ever looked at the circle of life, you have your wealth, your health, your business, career, relationships, and your faith. I interview people who are successful in those areas. That's the verticals we stay in. I'm looking for their blueprints to success, right? I wanna extract how they got to where they're at. What made them successful in whatever area that might be. Success leaves clues. If I can learn from you, figure out how you got where you're at, what pitfalls to avoid, what mistakes not to make. All those things, we can get there faster. I'm also learning, I love it too. It's really a place and a platform for me to learn from very successful people as well which is cool. So I love the podcast. It's amazing guys, check it out. Who Ya Know Show. Apple, Spotify, and anywhere you listen.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 25:36

I love that. And to your point, I'm the same way. We were talking about certain topics to death and it's all right, I have to mix it up a little bit. But in the process I've learned some things. Sometimes you may feel like you're the expert, know everything and finance investments that all that. And then ran into someone maybe he's been on your show or you know, of him, Rocky Lalvani from Profit First. He's a coach and he talked about just paying yourself first. The systems that they put in place because as a business owner you always find ways. Any income coming in, I can buy a bigger billboard or a faster website or a computer or another employee. At some point, the whole point of the business as well is also to, to pay yourself. So he gave me a structured approach. And I'm like all the years of college and grad school, all the years of owning different businesses, I never really had a system. I was very organized and I did pay myself, but I didn't have these percentage, these buckets. That when this money was coming in, some went to taxes, some went to operating, expense, income. And then, there's a few other buckets. I'm like, this is such an easy streamlined way, and now it's automated for me, why the heck didn't I look into this? Or maybe I didn't know it, it existed. That one interview, and he is been on my show probably about five times now. I learned something new, or there's a new program or new way of automating it, right? In the past it was a manual process. it's amazing. It's amazing what you learn. on our show anytime we bring on somebody, I go, Hey, if you want an intro to any guests, we're probably about 260 plus episode 270. If you want an intro, let us know. I'll make a one-on-one introduction to that individual, if you wanna continue that conversation. That's an offer that I extend to everyone, and I understand maybe not some of the bigger names that, that have been on the show. Maybe you can't get ahold of every single person. But I will try my best to make that intro. And I think that goes a real long way. It's really any way we can assist, any way we can help. Because I do understand that in career transition there's a lot of confusion, a lot of anxiety, as you mentioned, if you're not in the right. Mental space, you're not gonna listen to anything anyway. You're down in the dump. So you do need that uplifting inspiration. So I love that. And I've heard of executive recruiters and a lot, but I didn't realize that this was, this process to me seems very holistic. You cover everything and it's not just benefiting. You're benefiting so much more than just finding that next job and creating that personal brand. I think more and more people are realizing that, but there are a lot of people that they don't even know how to record a video. Let alone updating their LinkedIn. They need a little bit more handholding. I think it's a great business model and the need is just gonna increase day by day with the number of layoffs we've been having.

Trevor Houston: 28:01

You were just talking about the networking side of podcasting.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 28:04

Yep.

Trevor Houston: 28:05

Connecting people, making those introductions to people that you've had on your show and things like that. A podcast is a networking on steroids, right? Relationship building, boom, me and you getting on this thing, we haven't met before. This is the first time really having a conversation, we get here and all of a sudden we're finding synergies and different ways that we can help each other and different things like that. And our backgrounds are similar in some areas, it really builds relationships and expedites relationships extremely fast. It's also a platform that you can leverage to bring value to someone. And so I actually teach the job seekers to start podcasts. And not everybody does that'cause it's very outside their comfort zone. But I show them the benefits of it. Hey, not only can you build relationships, which is your goal right now, right? It's all about who you know, but you can get the attention of busy people, busy decision makers and invite them onto your podcast. Now you're giving something of value that they're actually interested in and they come onto your show. And then as far as your personal brand and your marketing, a podcast as you know, helps you create a marketing machine. If you can do a podcast interview with AI now, it'll chop it up into a million different types of content. Video content, you can write articles and blogs and LinkedIn posts, and just anything you can think of starts from that long form video. That's just one of the crazy little things that I teach people. Because I know how successful it is and what's crazy about that, the ones that actually take me up on that and actually do it, it changes their life. It not only helps them find a job, but it completely changes their life. It's incredible.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 29:37

It changes how you do business. It affects so many different things. Like you mentioned, I'm five years in on my own show, and I've been guesting on probably seven years, seven, eight years now. It makes a huge difference. It's people don't realize it for the brand. Regardless, you're gonna change careers, you may own businesses, it doesn't matter. People are buying you. You are the brand, the trusts in you. It's not in the logo, it's not in the LLC, it's in you. And I think that show, with the internet, that information doesn't go away. People find episodes from seven, eight years ago that we did when I was a guest on someone else's show. So it's evergreen, it's always there. It's to be found. It helps with the AI searches and they're saying SEO is dead. I don't know if I agree with it, but, I think AI plays a role there and there's so many. I think it just helps in so many different ways. And to your point, the networking aspect alone, if that was the only benefit you got, I think that alone is worth the time. For those that are willing to put themselves out there. I'm sure your first show wasn't comfortable. I know mine wasn't. I think my camera was cutting the top of my head off. I was trying to make it in my lighting. I looked like I was in a cave. But it was pretty embarrassing.

Trevor Houston: 30:39

I had notes on my first show, and I was like,

Giuseppe Grammatico: 30:42

Reading, reading through it. It was like an interrogation. Actually my first year that the company we're with, we were just doing audio only now that I think of it. So it was just video is too much of a pain. Then AI hit. It's like, all right, now we could do video. It's gonna be cost effective. So you evolve, you learn. But that's, that is really cool. I highly recommend anyone listening in if they wanna launch their own show.

Trevor Houston: 31:03

Or even a mock podcast. I tell people you don't even have to release it. Okay. If you're simply doing it for networking and create your marketing. To get on a camera and talk for an hour by yourself is a little bit, it can be challenging. I do solo episodes. You do solo episodes, right? Yeah. To talk for an hour by yourself, that takes a little bit of skill. Doing an interview, you're just having a conversation you're just talking.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 31:25

It goes a lot faster. Yeah. I agree.

Trevor Houston: 31:27

It goes a lot faster. For the marketing, you can, this can be chopped up, I'm sure you're gonna chop this up. Be chopped up into a bunch of clips and now you're in all the feeds and looking like an expert. So you don't even have to release it as a long form podcast. You could just do it for the clips, right?

Giuseppe Grammatico: 31:44

You build a library and then maybe I'm talking about launching. I have someone on the show that specializes in guesting on podcasts and launching brand new shows and that's their wheelhouse. You know what? I can really show you how to do it, but if you wanna talk to someone or talk to Trevor, this is exactly, this is a show we just did. We started at the 30th minute and we talk exactly about how to launch a show. And the camera you need; the mic that you need. It helps a lot because now you got this resource and then once they're reviewing the show, they may jump in and watch another show covering a different topic. So it also helps in being efficient, being able to give that information, for people that wanna dive in a little bit deeper. This was awesome. It's great to meet you for the first time. It's funny. You think many people think they're alone in their situation. I'm the only one that experienced this to find out where I'm in New Jersey, you're in Texas, and, we're talking about some similarities and what we've experienced. Close around the same time I left my last job. So you talk about the recession I launched my business in, seven. I'll hold that for when I'm on your show. I like to pick the worst timing sometimes to start a business and get into things, but it ended up working out. We'll be posting out there with all the links. If you would like to visit Trevor, we'll have the LinkedIn, but if you also want an introduction more than glad to do that as well. I extend that just to be consistent in the show. But I really appreciate you being on the show. And if there's anything we didn't discuss that. You think about afterwards, I always tell my guests, shoot me over an email. We'll make sure to either do a follow up episode and at bare minimum if there's a website or a promotion or something, we can always add that to the show notes and into the social media posts as well.

Trevor Houston: 33:13

Perfect. Hey, thank you so much. Really it means a lot and I just appreciate you having me on.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 33:18

Same here. It was fun. I appreciate it and we'll definitely talk soon. Take care.

33:22

Thanks for tuning in if you want to learn how to make the transition from corporate to owning your franchise. Join Giuseppe on the next episode. You can also follow on all social media platforms and achieve financial and time freedom today.