Courtney Johnson: Career Cheat Codes to Stand Out, Get Promoted, and Win at Work | Career | E395

Career success isn't always about working the hardest, and Courtney Johnson learned that the hard way. While climbing the corporate ladder, she was told to keep her head down and grind, only to discover that top performers play by a completely different set of rules. Getting laid off forced her to crack the code and write Career Cheat Codes to help others build thriving careers with ease. In this episode, Courtney shares actionable strategies to get noticed, land promotions, negotiate raises, and build a personal brand that creates real opportunities. In this episode, Hala and Courtney will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (02:30) The Expensive Lie About Working Hard (07:33) A Players vs. B Players Mindset (12:49) How Entrepreneurs Can Build Visibility (14:55) How to Impress Your Boss and Clients Fast (23:30) Job Search Strategies That Work in 2026 (30:56) Using Keywords for Resumes and Branding (34:33) Overcoming Imposter Syndrome at Work (36:30) Building a Personal Brand and Monetizing Content (52:26) How to Land Paid Speaking Gigs (54:25) How to Become Visible and Profitable Courtney Johnson is an entrepreneur, author, and personal brand strategist who helps professionals accelerate their career growth through visibility and strategic positioning. Her new book, Career Cheat Codes, reveals the unwritten rules of workplace success and career development. Known for her viral content on LinkedIn and TikTok, she has built a loyal community of professionals and creators who follow her for no-nonsense career and personal branding advice. Sponsored By: Huel - Get over $50 in savings with the Discovery Bundle from Huel. Use my exclusive code YAP15 for 15% off at huel.com/yap15. Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/profiting Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/profiting. Quo - Run your business communications the smart way. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to quo.com/profiting Experian - Manage and cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reduce your bills. Get started now with the Experian App and let your Big Financial Friend do the work for you. See experian.com for details. Intuit - Start paying bills the smart way, not the hard way. Learn more at QuickBooks.com/billpay AT&T Business - Power your small business with reliable connectivity from AT&T. Switch today at business.att.com. Fabric - Protect your family with term life insurance from Fabric by Gerber Life. Apply today in just minutes at meetfabric.com/profiting ZocDoc - Stop putting off those doctors’ appointments. Find and instantly book a doctor you love today at Zocdoc.com/PROFITING Blinkist - Turn the world’s best nonfiction books into quick 15-minute reads or listens. Grab your free trial plus an exclusive 30% discount at blinkist.com/profiting Resources Mentioned: Courtney's Book, Career Cheat Codes: bit.ly/CJ-CCC Courtney's Instagram: instagram.com/courtlynnjohnson/ Courtney's TikTok: tiktok.com/@courtney..johnson Courtney's Website: courtneyjohnsonnews.com Atomic Habits by James Clear: bit.ly/JC-AH Show Your Work by Austin Kleon: bit.ly/AK-SYW Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap YouTube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Newsletter - youngandprofiting.co/newsletter LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side Hustle, Startup, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth Mindset, Hiring, Startup, Business Ideas, Growth Hacks, Money Management, Career Podcast

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Hala Taha?

  Today's episode is sponsored in part by Northwest Registered Agent, Whatnot, Mod, and AG1. Northwest Registered Agent gives you the tools and guidance to build a complete business identity. Start using free resources at northwestregisteredagent.com/ yapfree. Whatnot helps sellers grow through live shopping, community, and real-time connections with buyers. Search Whatnot, W-H-A-T-N-O-T, in the App Store, download, and you can start selling right away. Mod connects qualifying patients with licensed medical providers for modafinil to support sustained energy, focus, and alertness throughout the day. Visit mod.com for a free consultation and get 10% off your first order plus free shipping with promo code PROFITING.

• 0:45Hala Taha?

  See their website for important safety information. AG1 Next Gen supports your nutritional foundation with vitamins, minerals, pre- and probiotics, and superfoods. Go to drinkag1.com/profitting and get a free immune support bundle with your first subscription order. As always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show notes or at youngandprofiting.com/deals.

• 1:08Speaker 01

  It is an expensive lie to say you have to pull your head down, work hard, and everything is going to work out for you because the opportunities do not go to the hardest worker. The opportunities go to the person who is most visible.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  Courtney Johnson, a personal brand strategist and content creator. Known for her career cheat codes, she helps professionals build visibility online and turn content into real career opportunities.

• 1:35Speaker 01

  I want other people to have a shortcut to where they don't have to go through so many ups and downs and so many problems in their career. They just understand the information and they can go. I got laid off, and so I was forced to post every single day for 365 days. And that year completely changed my life. Consistency compounds. The only way to fail the entrepreneur game, the personal brand game, is to quit. It's to come up with an excuse and say, "I'm going to come back in two weeks."

• 2:05Hala Taha?

  For somebody who's looking for a job, what do they need to know about how hiring works today in 2026?

• 2:11Speaker 01

  The biggest tip to getting a job as easy and fast as possible is to build a personal brand.

• 2:17Hala Taha?

  How do you suggest people decide what's the first platform they should focus on?

• 2:22Speaker 01

  I recommend people start with...

• 2:25Hala Taha?

  Hey, young improffiders. Today, we are taking a turn from our usual topic of entrepreneurship, and we're going to focus on careers. So this episode is especially valuable if you are climbing the corporate ladder. But of course, we're going to touch on entrepreneurship, because we always do at Young and Profiting Podcast. If you're working hard, hitting your goals, staying loyal, but still invisible when promotions, raises, and big opportunities come around, this episode is for you. Today, I'm interviewing Courtney Johnson in the flesh, and she's breaking down the real rules of career success. She's a personal brand strategist, entrepreneur, and author of Career Cheat Codes. And her message is clear: Opportunities don't go to the hardest worker. They go to the most visible worker. She's sharing exactly how to

• 3:09Hala Taha?

  work out loud, build strategic relationships, and position yourself so opportunities stop passing you by and start coming straight to you. But before we get into it, if you're just discovering us, I'm so glad you're here. Make sure you subscribe and follow us so you never miss a conversation. And by the way, me and Courtney did this interview in real life. So if you like to watch your podcast episodes and feel all that chemistry, go check it out on YouTube. All right, let's get into the conversation. Courtney, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast.

• 3:38Speaker 01

  I'm so pumped to be here.

• 3:40Hala Taha?

  Me too. I'm so excited for this conversation. I feel like you've got so much to share in terms of career advice for people who are professionals, and then also for entrepreneurs, because you're an entrepreneur yourself. So you've got this new book called Career Cheat Codes, coming out in April this year, which is like, super exciting. And in the book, your premise is really like, this old, you know, adage saying of, keep your head down, work hard, everything's just going to work out, really just isn't true. And a lot of high achievers act this way. They just think they can work hard, and good things are going to happen to them. Why is that an expensive lie?

• 4:18Speaker 01

  It is an expensive lie to say you have to pull your head down, work hard, and everything is going to work out for you, because Your work, like, nobody's gonna go out of their way to find your work. Nobody's gonna search through your Google Drive and say, oh, my God, that report was so good. Nobody's going to pluck you out of a crowd. And I think we have this idea. I used to have the same idea. And honestly, I think it was from hearing those stories of like Victoria's Secret models in like a South African mall. And they're like, you, like, we're picking you out of a crowd and now we're giving you a career. That just doesn't happen, okay? Maybe that worked in like 2008 in this one industry. It doesn't work, right? And Austin Kleon says, if your work is not online, it does not exist.

• 5:03Speaker 01

  Um, I actually went to a, went to a bar one time and that's kind of where this idea came from. And, and the, the band was really good. And I went up to the band after and I said, wow, that was amazing. Like, can I follow you on Spotify? And they're like, oh, we don't have Spotify. And I was like, okay, YouTube, SoundCloud, like, where can I keep up with, with your work? Especially since they said it was their dream to share their music with the world, to get a, a record label, you know? All the, all the music dreams.

• 5:29Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 5:29Speaker 01

  They're like, oh, we're, we're not on, online, we're not on Spotify, we're not on Instagram. But you can come see us at this bar every third Thursday.

• 5:37Hala Taha?

  Oh, my God.

• 5:38Speaker 01

  And anybody that heard that would say, that is crazy. There's no way that you can have a successful music career just being at this bar every third Thursday. There's not like music scouts out and about going to give you the golden ticket, right? You gotta put in the reps yourself. But a lot of us think like that when it comes to our careers. We're putting in the reps, we're showing up internally. But when we're not making ourselves visible externally, those opportunities just aren't coming to us. And I'm curious if you got that same advice from your parents?

• 6:06Hala Taha?

  From my parents? No, my, my parents, uh, were from the Middle East. And so they were immigrants. And my dad was a doctor. And so for them, they were just like, you know, study hard, work hard. But they didn't have much career advice to give me. Like, I felt, growing up, like, really alone in terms of how to navigate the corporate world and the business world. Because they never had corporate jobs, neither of them. My dad just kind of like studied and went to med school and that was the route that he knew. Um, so no, I didn't. Did not, you know, I was, I was like, uh, reading your book and I noticed that you had mentioned that a lot of people kind of grow up at the dinner table, learning about how to navigate corporate. But no, that, that definitely wasn't me. I learned it on my own.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, that did not happen to me either. And that's why, why I wrote this book, because I was kind of given the advice, like, you know, working class, just keep working hard and you'll get the opportunities. But the opportunities do not go to the hardest worker. The opportunities go to the person who is most visible. Because when, when you're looking for someone, when you're looking for a graphic designer to hire, you're looking for someone to book on a stage, you're looking for someone to bring on your podcast, you're looking for the person to, to give a promotion to. We're going to choose the easiest choice. We're going to choose the person that is obvious, or it makes us look good to our boss. We're going to choose the person that is, um, that is, is easy to enroll everybody into why we're hiring them, why we're promoting them.

• 7:32Speaker 01

  And you want to make it easy for people around you to say yes to you. And when you're hiding because, oh, I'm humble, or because, oh, I, my work speaks for itself, you're really robbing yourself of all of these opportunities.

• 7:46Hala Taha?

  Yeah. I remember, I, I forgot who I interviewed, but they told me that humble literally means low to the ground. So who wants to look up to somebody who's low to the ground?

• 7:55Speaker 01

  Right.

• 7:56Hala Taha?

  Right? So you never want to be humble.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. Also, like, you're robbing the world of your gifts and talents if you're staying humble, right? Some people are like, well, I don't want to make it all about me, me, me. It's not about you, you, you. It's about all the people you impact, right? Like, Young and Profiting is not just about Hala, although you weave in your stories and your experience. Young and Profiting is about all of the listeners, the millions of people who have listened to this podcast, learned something, learned something, implemented it, and changed their life in some way. And if you, if you were to stay quiet and say, well, I'm going to be humble, I'm not going to do this podcast, I'm not going to put myself out there, you are robbing those millions of people that have had massive changes in their life, massive improvements in their life, their business, their career because of you.

• 8:41Hala Taha?

  Yeah. One of the concepts I loved in your book was this A-player, B-player concept. So tell us, like, what does an A-player look like? What do they do and what do they not do?

• 8:50Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm. An A-player is someone usually who comes from a family where they were told all of the unwritten rules of, uh, of work. And for me, when I got to the workplace, I saw all these A-players. And I'm like, wait, why are they talking like that? Why are they doing that? I thought I would just do my work and everything would work out. I come from very much a B-player background. So really, the book is exposing all of the tips and tricks of the A-players. And some of the things that the A-players do, A-players really, really understand psychology, relationships. A-players understand that, um, they want to find out their boss's goal and help their boss achieve that goal. A-players understand visibility.

• 9:35Speaker 01

  They understand that visibility is what gets their work noticed. A-players also understand, again, relationships, how to build strong relationship across your company, with your clients, et cetera. And the main difference between A-players and B-players is that A-players understand that it's a game and they embrace the game. And a lot of times, we can be afraid to embrace this corporate game because it's fake, it's bullshit, whatever. But if you want, if you don't like the game of corporate, just gain power and change it yourself. So really, A-players play the game. They notice that it's a game. They see it's a game, they play the game. B-players say things like, oh, I don't want to play the game.

• 10:18Speaker 01

  I don't want to pretend to be someone I'm not. They're very resistant to the game.

• 10:23Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 10:23Speaker 01

  But everything in life is a game and we can choose to learn the rules and play to win, or we can choose to be pissy about it and stay stuck.

• 10:32Hala Taha?

  And one of the games that A-players play is working out loud.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:37Hala Taha?

  Can you give us some examples of how you can work out loud?

• 10:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, working loudly would be something like, when you finish a great project, talk about it in Slack or Teams or whatever your company communication is. Share, hey, I'm super proud of our team and- We accomplished this or that. I contributed in this way. Working out loud is also sharing your work publicly. I know a lot of people can't share their exact work publicly, but you can still share what you're learning. So that means posting on LinkedIn. Working out loud means being open to speaking opportunities, to hosting opportunities. Even if it's not external, can you host a tutorial with a different department in your organization? Can you go to a conference, record a Loom video about what you learned and share that with the team?

• 11:24Speaker 01

  It's really this idea of like bragging about our work because again, if our work is invisible, we're not going to be first for the promotion. We're not going to be first for those opportunities that we really, really like. Another way to flex working loudly is just to update your boss. Hey boss, these are the things I did today. These are the things I accomplished this week and start to make a trail of everything that you've accomplished. It makes it a lot easier to get a promotion and it makes them honestly like you a lot more and be a little bit less on your ass because they really trust you. Because they see that your work is visible. It's visible to them. It's visible to the broader team.

• 12:01Hala Taha?

  So it's not really about necessarily doing the best work. Of course you want to do the best work. It's about the perception that you're doing the best work.

• 12:11Speaker 01

  Totally, totally. And you're exactly right. It's not the best, most talented work that gets the promotion or gets the opportunity or signs the deal. It's the one that's easiest for other people to see, right? And listen, it's helpful if you can do the best work, but the best work just isn't the differentiating factor. Now, a lot of people listening to this probably are rock stars at their work. They're amazing at their work. So it's it's going to be even easier, but unfortunately, some people are kind of shitty at their work and still get the job and the promotion and the deal. And I'm sure a lot of listeners listening to this right now are like, yeah, I've seen those examples and I hate that that happens. I wish it went to the best person, but it doesn't.

• 12:56Hala Taha?

  A lot of high performers, I think, fall into this bucket of not wanting to play this game because In school, it's not really about politics. You take the test, you get a good grade, you know, you get honors and you keep getting rewarded. So they end up going into corporate and they think it's the same system when it's really not. So even if your work does get you shine and you're really talented, it could be the key differentiator where you're going ahead. Somebody who has really good work and good politics and they're going to get the promotion over you.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  Totally, yeah. And you don't have to be perfect at either game. Like you're never going to be the top of the top, the best at what you do. And you're never going to be the most socially intelligent or aware, right? It's like, how do you play into your own strengths and really amplify those?

• 13:42Hala Taha?

  Mm hmm. I feel like this is also relatable to entrepreneurs working out loud. Cause it's this whole, whole concept of like documenting your journey, sharing before you're necessarily ready. Like everybody thinks they have to be an expert to share online, but you can actually share what you're learning. Talk to us about how entrepreneurs can use this concept as well.

• 14:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, first entrepreneurs can work out loud with their clients. So if you want to make sure you're retaining your clients or your users, make sure you're reminding them of the impact. Maybe you have a, a, a marketing agency. Hey, like we're super proud because we're seeing these results this week. We just had this major win or a small win. You know, you might text your client a screenshot of somebody that said, hey, I loved that presentation. I loved that thing, right? It could be so small. Maybe you have an app. We want to make sure that we're continuously reminding our audience how much time they're saving or how much money they're making or whatever outcome that you're creating.

• 14:42Speaker 01

  So constantly remind your clients, remind your users, remind your customers the benefit that they're getting from your service or they might forget because they're not thinking about you all the time. It's like you gotta make sure that you're retaining these users as well. Um, and then also for new users and new opportunity for new clients, for new prospects, we want to make sure we're building in public. So we are posting consistently and it doesn't have to be crazy. You don't have to drop everything and become an influencer. Just give your audience routine updates of what you're doing, what you're celebrating. So you can stay top of mind because when our audience comes to a buying decision, they're going to choose the person that's the most top of mind.

• 15:25Speaker 01

  In the same way, when your boss is looking for someone to promote, they're going to choose the person that's most top of mind. They're not going to think and sift through and really get in the weeds. I wish they did, but they don't. So constantly remain top of mind.

• 15:40Hala Taha?

  This is so smart. I love what you're saying about reminding your clients because they will come up with their own narrative about how the service is going, right? They'll remember like a few things from a few meetings and kind of piece it together. And their narrative could end up being a lot more negative than the truth. So your job is to kind of craft the narrative for them and share it with them ongoingly, which I just think is so smart.

• 16:00Speaker 01

  Exactly. It's so, so important.

• 16:03Hala Taha?

  So how can you make a good impression on your boss? Because it is usually your boss that is, you know, helping you get a promotion or moving you along your career. So how can people better impress their boss?

• 16:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, you can better impress your boss. First, you've got to learn what their goal is. Their personal goal and their professional goal is that their goal is to run a marathon this year. Okay, great. What can you take off their plate? Can you go to that morning meeting to give them time for their marathon training? Right? Uh, maybe their personal goal is to buy a house this year. Can you just give them some encouragement? Can you say, oh, great, you're touring with a Realtor. I'll take that over that day. Or, oh, my cousin's a Realtor. Here you go. So you want to figure out their personal goal. You also want to figure out their professional goal. Maybe they want to get promoted. Maybe they want to raise. Maybe they want to achieve a certain outcome or metric. And you want to create your focus around helping your boss achieve that goal.

• 16:57Speaker 01

  A lot of times we get caught up in the weeds of what we think we should do, maybe even what's best for the company. But really, if you want your boss to be obsessed with you, figure out their goals and help them achieve those goals as your very first priority. The next thing you want to do, if you want to make your boss obsessed with you, is to give them more updates than you think. I call this the Monday, Wednesday, Friday rule. So Monday, you're going to tell them, hey, boss, here are my five priorities for the week. Wednesday, you're going to send them a quick update. Here's how we're progressing on A, B, C, D. On Friday, you're going to send them a summary of here's what I accomplished. They are going to feel like a load is lifted off their shoulders if you do this. They are going to be way more hands off.

• 17:41Speaker 01

  Let you run on your own because they are always visible into what you're working on. And this is going to give you a lot more time because now that you have your priorities, you're giving your boss the updates. They're not going to be micromanaging you and you could take that extra hour to go work out or go on a walk or go to the park with your dogs. Take some of your time back.

• 17:59Hala Taha?

  You give such cute hacks in the book. One of them is the snackable surprises for your boss. I love that hack. Can you tell us about that?

• 18:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, um, this is fun because, you know, we have this, there's this concept of like iterative wins or iterative surprises, right? Where if I brought donuts to work in every single day, you would start to expect it from me. But if I bring in fun little surprises ad hoc, you become more addictive as a person. This is actually how, um, how, um, toxic relationships work, but we're just using it for good. So, um, so for your coworkers, bring in a little surprise. Offer to help somebody, offer to help your boss, take something off of their plate. But if you don't want to be held to it, do it a little bit more intermittently rather than consistently.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  But you want to consistently give your boss the Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

• 18:54Hala Taha?

  Got it. So in terms of these snackable surprises, from my understanding, it was basically like surprise them with like information or something that can help them that they just weren't expecting.

• 19:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, this can also be information. This can be again, something like, I think you would love this article. It could be again, something like you go to a conference or you attend a webinar that they don't know about and you send them what you learned from it or the three actions that you're taking. Um, again, it's really being proactive and going above and beyond. Something else I think is super helpful is there is a, I think it's a 1% rule or 10% rule. You just want to go like a tiny percent above what everybody else is doing. So if your boss asks you to do a report, do a report and tell them the three predictions for the next report. If your boss asks you to make a pitch deck, do the pitch deck and draft the pitch deck email.

• 19:48Speaker 01

  Like, how can you anticipate and take one extra micro step above everybody else is really gonna make you stand out? And that also will make you stand out in interviews. So for all the entrepreneurs listening to this of like, how do I hire an A player? Look out for these things in the interview. Are they going one extra step in the job application process? Did they, you know, email you after to thank you? Did they send you a quick video? Did they share with you three changes they would make? Or a, you know, high level of a 30, 60, 90 plan? Those are the people we really wanna hire, because those are the people that are going even just one tiny step above and beyond.

• 20:25Hala Taha?

  As I was learning about some of these strategies, I kept thinking about my own journey as an entrepreneur. And when I heard about this, like, you know, snackable surprises, I realized like, this is what I do to get mentors now. This is what I do to get like really high level clients, because people who join my network have to have like a certain amount of downloads. They're typically like really famous. And I've gotta like stand out and impress them somehow. And so what I'll do is just like try to be helpful. And not in annoying like spammy way, but like if I have a piece of information that they could, you know, really use or implement, I'll like, you know, shoot a loom video and like send it to them. And until finally like they wanna have a call with me or they realize that I've got value to share.

• 21:08Hala Taha?

  And so you can also use this strategy to get clients and mentors as an entrepreneur.

• 21:13Speaker 01

  Totally. Like introductions is a great way to do this of, hey, I would love like for a couple of people, I've been like, hey, I would love to introduce you to my book agent. I know that'd be really valuable for them. That would deepen the relationship. Uh, it could be, hey, I have an extra ticket to this conference. Like, do you wanna go? I'll give you this ticket for free. Um, I love the information. I actually had somebody use this on me last week. They were like, uh, it was somebody that worked at LinkedIn. He said, hey, Courtney, here are three things that, um, are kind of under the radar that I've learned. Like, I would love to come guest speak. And they wanna guest speak. And the way that they're putting their foot in the door is telling me these like kind of three bits of insider information that, that only they would know, which is really, really cool. So, yeah, I love that.

• 21:55Speaker 01

  I love implementing information as a leverage point and as, um, value that you're giving tidbits of value.

• 22:03Hala Taha?

  So you were just mentioning the hiring process.

• 22:06Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 22:07Hala Taha?

  For somebody who's looking for a job, what do they need to know about how hiring works today in 2026?

• 22:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, right now, the hiring process, the hiring landscape is completely different than it looked even one year ago with AI, with massive layoffs. I mean, it is competitive and it is wild. A couple of things I would want somebody to know if they were applying to a job right now. First, your volume has to be higher than you think. A lot of people come to me, Courtney, I'm trying, I'm applying and applying and applying and I haven't gotten any interviews. And I ask them, how many jobs have you applied for? They might say, oh, 10, 15. It's gonna take a lot more than that. It's gonna take 100, 200.

• 22:55Speaker 01

  Second, you want to make sure that you're working with recruiters and that you're connected with a bunch of recruiters on LinkedIn. So I actually tell my clients, they are not allowed to complain about not having a job unless they're connected to 200 recruiters on their LinkedIn. And people say, oh, but Courtney, my inbox is gonna be annoying. I hope your inbox is annoying.

• 23:13Hala Taha?

  That's the point.

• 23:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's the point. Like, I hope all these people are fighting to place you. So you want to make sure that you are connected with a fuck ton of recruiters. Next, you want to make sure you're always going one step above and beyond. So you're sending them an extra message, an extra video, you're sending them some things that you would implement or change. And the biggest tip to getting a job as easy and fast as possible is to build a personal brand.

• 23:42Hala Taha?

  Yes.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  The simplest way to do this is just post on LinkedIn, start posting on LinkedIn weekly. It's gonna put you above every single other person that's competing for that job because they're glancing at your LinkedIn profile for maybe a second.

• 23:56Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 23:56Speaker 01

  If it looks really professional, if you look like a thought leader, you look like you're educating others, you post consistently, you're immediately going to gain higher favor because I have what I call a three-second test on LinkedIn. And it's really like a one-second test. If you just glance at your profile for a couple of seconds, What are people thinking? It's not even what they're thinking. It's what is the unconscious biases that start to come out? And I use the word bias as a neutral term because it could be something like, oh, you have speaker in your bio. And in my mind, speaker has positive attributes and it sounds like you're really qualified. So I see speaker, the biases, oh, you're probably really qualified. Right? Or it might be more negative. I might see polka dots on your shirt and you're wearing a college graduation cap.

• 24:39Speaker 01

  So I assume my bias is, oh, you're young and inexperienced. So you also want to make sure that your profile is reflecting the positive biases that if somebody just glances at your profile, they're taking away things that are going to support that hiring decision. And then, once you start posting, opportunities are going to come to you. So few people do it and so few people stay consistent with it that if you are posting consistently, it is going to make you stand out. Again, if you're connected, if you have 200 recruiters in your network, you're posting once a week and they're seeing those posts. Their unconscious bias is, oh, this person's going to be really easy to place.

• 25:14Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 25:15Speaker 01

  Like, they're hardworking, they're going above and beyond. Like, I'm gonna go out of my way for them.

• 25:19Hala Taha?

  Yeah, and either way, if you don't end up getting a job, your personal brand can help you, you know, become an entrepreneur. So either way, you've got to leverage your personal brand, I think, to get a job or to become an entrepreneur. And I feel like a lot of people in corporate, they're kind of scared of creating a personal brand. They feel like because they're in corporate, they don't need one or they even might get in trouble for starting one. Talk to us about why it's so important to build a personal brand, whether you're in corporate and you've got a stable job or, you know, you're looking for a job.

• 25:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, this is so important. I get the question a lot. I'm in corporate, but I feel weird because what is my boss gonna say about me posting on LinkedIn? Or what if I get fired for posting on LinkedIn? There is a lot of fear that comes up around this. But the truth is, the odds that you're going to be at that company forever are very, very, very small. So even if something does go wrong, were you gonna stay there forever? Probably not. The best way to avoid any negativity from you posting on LinkedIn, one, block the people that you're afraid of seeing your stuff. Like, it's that simple. You can block people. Second, share your mission with your team. So if you're a little afraid of what your boss is gonna think, figure out what your underlying mission is and share that with them. For example,

• 26:36Speaker 01

  Hala, you're my boss. Hala, I just wanted to let you know, like, I started posting on LinkedIn. I'm really excited because first, I think it's really gonna help us get more visibility into XYZ product. But two, it's always been my passion to inspire young women. And my posts are, like, my intention for my posts is to inspire more young women to go into engineering. What are you gonna say? Oh, you can't inspire young women?

• 27:00Hala Taha?

  Yeah, of course not, yeah.

• 27:02Speaker 01

  If you position it in a way that's sharing that your intention is to elevate the whole company, not just you, and to inspire some group of people, I've never seen that not work. Because they don't want to look like an asshole.

• 27:14Hala Taha?

  Yeah, and you will actually become more valuable because you're gaining new skills. So let's say, like, you're in finance, but now you're dabbling in LinkedIn, and now suddenly you're good at marketing and writing, and your boss or your company can find more opportunities for you.

• 27:30Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 27:30Hala Taha?

  I remember when I started working at HP. That's when I started posting on LinkedIn. And I became a big influencer, and I became more popular than the CEO at HP.

• 27:41Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 27:41Hala Taha?

  And then suddenly, they were like, go to every conference, you know, interview the CEO at the town halls, can you help train our sales team on LinkedIn? And I was actually getting more opportunities because I was posting on LinkedIn. And at first, it was really my peers, my coworkers were like, what are you doing? Like, why are you doing that? But all the executives actually loved it and thought that it was a strength that I was posting on LinkedIn. So I also think there's some benefits to it that people don't necessarily, like, realize right at first. Like, maybe at first there'll be pushback, but if you actually start to gain traction, you become more valuable.

• 28:17Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 28:18Hala Taha?

  And also, you become more visible to other companies who might poach you for a higher salary or something like that.

• 28:24Speaker 01

  Totally, yeah. I think as long as you're getting ahead of the narrative, and then again, sharing those wins. So, hey, a customer DM'd me on LinkedIn, and they said they really, really liked this feature. That's so cool, right? Like, even these little breadcrumbs of positivity, again, just in the same way we're like, we're shifting the narrative, and we're controlling the narrative of our customers by sharing wins with them, we're gonna do- That internally and we're going to share with our boss, we're going to share in our company wins channel, even these tiny things, as simple as a customer commenting on your LinkedIn post. Your, the narrative there is simply, look, I'm fostering relationships with our customers. Like I'm using this as an additional touch point. And we know the more touch points we have with our customers, the longer they retain or whatever it might be.

• 29:07Speaker 01

  And then also I would make sure that you have a good mix of things about your company, but also things about you. So you were probably talking about HP, but you're also talking about the mentorship you were getting, the books that you were reading, like things outside of that one job. Because you definitely don't want to be pinned down to one

• 29:25Hala Taha?

  Totally.

• 29:25Speaker 01

  Specific job if you're not going to stay there forever.

• 29:28Hala Taha?

  I totally agree. Now, something that's not so obvious to people, especially people who haven't built a personal brand before, or haven't spent a lot of time with algorithms, is that keywords really, uh, you know, are a big part of strategy online, even a big part of resume strategy. So help us understand why keywords play such a big part of getting your resume found. And then also how that translates to being an entrepreneur and starting an online brand.

• 29:57Speaker 01

  Totally. Well, both in our resume and in our content, we have AI algorithms that are picking up certain keywords. So if you're really into baking, it's picking up keywords around recipe, around healthy eating, around whatever, in order to feed it to you, because the algorithms want to feed you content of what you like. So we just want to make sure that our resumes are very keyword rich in whatever job we're searching for. So let's say I'm a general marketer. I'm going to apply to a social media job over here and I'm going to apply to an email marketing job over here. I'm definitely going to want to shift my resume a little bit and have more social media keywords over here for the social media job, or more email marketing keywords over here for the email marketing job.

• 30:41Speaker 01

  And you can use AI to do this. You can put your resume in chat, whatever your favorite AI is and say, hey, can you help me optimize this for this specific job? One of my favorite things to do is just take that job description, copy it, put it into AI, put it into ChatGPT, and ask chat how to optimize your resume tailored to that specific job application. There's so many tools and resources to optimize your resume. I used to do this manually for hundreds of job applications. I'm so happy that you can do this on your own. You can do this automatically. And then as far as building our personal brands, same thing, we can ask our friendly AIs,

• 31:24Speaker 01

  what keywords to sprinkle in to our content, although I find it happens really automatically. Like if you're talking about software engineering, you're probably naturally going to bring up a lot of keywords that people are already consuming and already searching. I would say it's it's more strategic on your resume.

• 31:42Hala Taha?

  Yeah, on LinkedIn, the algorithm is so like straightforward. We're basically like every user has two clouds. One cloud is their like interests, their profile, the keywords that's found in their profile and their content. And then one cloud is like the stuff they engage on. And so the algorithm is just matching people like, okay, what does this person engage on and who talks about that? And it just matches each other. So the same keywords you're probably putting in your resume, you want to make sure it's in your title, your bio, your description, even your description of the past jobs that you've had on LinkedIn, right? All that metadata is fed to the algorithm and then they'll know, the algorithm will know like you're an expert in XYZ and creates a keyword cloud for you.

• 32:23Hala Taha?

  So I feel like if people just understood that, they they could get so much further on LinkedIn.

• 32:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's also important to remember that just because your company has this like crazy word for your job title, that might not work on your resume, right? If your job, like I've worked at some startups where the social media manager is like the social media guru. Like I don't know, there's some bullshit names. Like you want to make sure you have a standard job title or elevate it a little bit. Like if you worked in, you know, if you worked as a waitress, maybe you're not writing waitress. Maybe you're writing like hospitality associate or something.

• 33:03Hala Taha?

  Yeah, totally. So what do you think about imposter syndrome? You know, this is like a hot topic. Everybody, you know, talks about imposter syndrome. What's your take on it?

• 33:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, so imposter syndrome is when we feel like we're not qualified enough or we don't have all of the information that we need to do a certain task or to do a certain role or get a certain opportunity. And the truth is, we are literally cyborgs. Like, we have all of the world's information at the tip of our fingers. And right now, in job applications, in career, in entrepreneurship, you do not have to know everything. You just have to be able to figure out the problem. Like, problem solving is the most important skill, not you know, you already have memorized how to do this thing. Like, that's so silly. So to what I would, what I would say to people dealing with imposter syndrome is you don't have to know the answer. You just have to know how to figure it out.

• 33:59Hala Taha?

  And in terms of getting a raise, how do you suggest that people approach getting a raise in their job?

• 34:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, when you want to get a raise, you really need to understand the value that you bring to the company. So most of the times, you're either making the company more money or you're saving the company money. If you're not doing one of those things, you probably wouldn't have a job. And you might think, well, I work in this other department that doesn't have any revenue attached to it. No, everything has revenue attached to it. Or you would not work there. Maybe you're saving the money because you're mitigating some risk. Or maybe you're bringing in money, you're bringing in users, et cetera.

• 34:33Hala Taha?

  Yeah, retaining clients.

• 34:34Speaker 01

  Retaining clients, exactly. So the first thing is really understanding whether you're making the company money or saving the company money. And then starting to quantify that. You can just have a conversation with ChatGPT and say, hey, here's my role, here's what I've done. Can you help me understand how I'm saving or making the company money? And you want to really have a raise conversation of tying it back into the money. Because honestly, nothing else really matters. We think like, oh, well, the client said this nice thing about me and I accomplished this and I worked for this long and I went above and beyond in these ways. And although that's all great and shows you have a great work ethic, what your company wants to know is a client gave me this

• 35:15Speaker 01

  And that led to them retaining, which led to an extra hundred thousand dollars, whatever. Or, you know, I, instead of taking six months to hire someone as a HR professional, I took three months. That cut our time to hire in half, which time to hire, you know, it really cost us an extra ten thousand dollars a month. So I saved us thirty thousand dollars. Like, you want to really find areas. And again, I, I coached people on this and they might say, well, there's, there's no way. Like, I didn't do anything to make or save the company money and you absolutely did, or you would be fired.

• 35:50Hala Taha?

  Yeah. I love that. Such great tips. So you wrote this book, Career Cheat Codes. Why do you feel so passionate about this topic? You also like blew up on TikTok initially, talking about careers. Why do you feel so passionate about this topic?

• 36:04Speaker 01

  I feel so passionate because it took me a long time to understand these cheat codes and I had to figure it out for myself. And I want other people to have a shortcut to where they don't have to go through so many ups and downs and so many problems in their career. They just understand the information and they can go. And I think of this as information equity. I think we talk about a lot of different types of equity and equality in our world, how to make the world more equitable. We talk about it in terms of money, in terms of where we come from, et cetera. And the type of equality I've just been really passionate about is information equality. Because I have seen so many stories where somebody comes from a really rough background.

• 36:42Speaker 01

  Somebody comes without, um, without having access to some of these job opportunities, et cetera. And they can work their way up just by having the information. One of my good friends, she is from the Philippines and she's from like a very small village where the average salary is like two hundred dollars a year. And she, just through watching YouTube videos, she learned how to be a VA, eventually made her own VA agency. Now she has a seven-figure business. She travels the world. She's literally living her dream.

• 37:12Hala Taha?

  Amazing.

• 37:12Speaker 01

  Because of information equity, because somebody decided, hey, I'm going to put what I learned on YouTube. Hey, I'm gonna put what I learned into a book. I'm gonna put what I learned on social media. And I just think the more we can give out information, the more we can un-gatekeep. Because I know some people like to gatekeep shit.

• 37:30Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 37:30Speaker 01

  Some people like to say, I'm not gonna share this with others because I want this to be my own special advantage. What I wanna see in the world and my vision for the world is we're not gatekeeping this information. Like, we are actively sharing information and education with others so we can level the playing field and have a more equitable world.

• 37:47Hala Taha?

  Talk to us about how you first started as a creator. From my understanding, you got laid off and that really, uh, that setback actually turned into an opportunity for you. Tell us how that unfolded.

• 37:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, so as, I, I, I actually, most of my career has been being a ghostwriter for other people. So, building other people's personal brands. So, I was posting on and off very inconsistently, but I got laid off. I think this was 2019 or 2020. And that's what finally catapulted me. Because I was like, I, I wish I could say that I bravely quit my job and decided to go all in on myself. But I didn't. It was forced. I got laid off and so I was forced to post every day. I was like, fuck, I gotta get a job. I gotta figure this out. And through that process of just committing, I'm like, I'm gonna post every single day, no matter what. No matter if it's a bad post, no matter if I don't feel like it, no matter if I'm sick.

• 38:41Speaker 01

  I am posting every single day for 365 days. And that year completely changed my life. I mean, absolutely insane, but yeah, my, I mean, that was basically my journey. I'd seen so many other people succeed with their personal brand and I was like, I want that for myself.

• 39:00Hala Taha?

  How did you laser in on your niche? Like, were you testing different topics? Or were you like, I'm just gonna start with careers and, and land there?

• 39:08Speaker 01

  I love this question. I, I actually started posting about everything. I started posting about my dogs and living in Austin and then my house and, and career and personal brand and all these other topics. And I just looked at the data of what, what are people liking? And it was a lot of career and personal brand. Another way that I would figure out what to post is I would ask my friends, hey, what advice do you ask me for? I would notice what advice my friends are asking me for. I would also ask my friends things like, when you think of me, what do you think of? So a lot of times, our zone of genius is so obvious to us that we don't even consider it. But our zone of genius might be mind blowing to somebody else.

• 39:52Speaker 01

  And for me, that was career. I thought these career cheat codes were obvious. And so I was like, I would never post them because like, duh, people know this, or it's easily Googleable, or there's already a lot of career creators. And it wasn't until my friend was asking me throughout her whole job application journey and had a really good result that she was like, hey, you should share some of this stuff. And so I started sharing it.

• 40:17Hala Taha?

  And I know that you're a proponent of like, sharing stuff even when it's not perfect. You call it B plus content.

• 40:23Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 40:24Hala Taha?

  Why is that so?

• 40:25Speaker 01

  Because I see people all the time overthink, overthink, overthink their content to where they don't actually post. Or maybe they'll post once or twice, fall off for a couple of months, do it again, and never actually get consistent. Which, that was actually me. I was overthinking, I was trying to make it so perfect that I never actually gained traction because I never actually was consistent. I actually believe there's two skills in personal breadth. Well, there's a lot of skills, but there's two main skills. One is the skill of consistency. Second is the skill of optimization. You cannot optimize if you're not consistent. So some people, they try to make like a 12 point strategy with their seven content pillars and the perfect time of day and the perfect whatever, before they even get started.

• 41:09Speaker 01

  But the truth is, that is, that's not, that's gonna be completely irrelevant in like, a couple of weeks or a couple of months. So I believe you should start posting consistently, even if it's bad, even if it sucks, even if it's just an Instagram picture of your dog every day and like, what you're feeding them. I don't give a fuck. Just start posting consistently every day. Once you have the habit down of posting consistently, then optimize. I love the book Atomic Habits and it talks about a similar example of, if you really wanna get really fit, build a gym habit, have the best technique, the very first skill is just driving your car to the gym. Can you do that every day? Can you drive your car to the gym and literally sit in the parking lot?

• 41:52Speaker 01

  Okay, now, once you've mastered that habit, go into the gym. It doesn't matter if you're walking on the treadmill for five minutes and you leave, you're just doing something.

• 42:01Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 42:01Speaker 01

  Then you're gonna slowly optimize. But the reason why people fail at the gym is because they get this crazy seven-week program where it's super hard and they're so sore after the first day. It doesn't integrate into their life. But consistency is more important than anything. Like, there has not been a single person online that has showed up consistently every single day, slowly optimized, and not seen success. It just doesn't happen. It doesn't exist.

• 42:27Hala Taha?

  Yeah. How do you suggest people decide what's the first platform they should focus on? And did you focus on one platform? Or did you focus on LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram at the same time?

• 42:37Speaker 01

  I started on LinkedIn, and I was only on LinkedIn for about a year before I went to TikTok. And I was on LinkedIn and TikTok for like, two years before I went to Instagram. So, I recommend people start with the platform where they will be the most consistent. And where they will actually start. Because then when you move to the next platform, you have a lot of content, you can repurpose, it makes it a lot easier. But a mistake I see people make when they're building their personal brand is trying to be on 10 platforms at once. It's best to really understand one platform, optimize for that platform, and then once you're in a good rhythm, once you've built the habit, once you've really optimized, then pick your second platform and your third platform.

• 43:18Speaker 01

  Now, if you have a whole team, or you're hiring a massive agency, you can skip this step, but most people don't have those resources. For most people, it's just them.

• 43:27Hala Taha?

  I totally agree. And I feel like the other thing that we need to talk about is, everybody's strengths are different. So, a lot of people are like, you know, I can't do social media because I'm not good at video. And LinkedIn doesn't need video. Substack is huge. That doesn't need video. School is blowing up. That doesn't really need video. So, I feel like there's other avenues for people who don't necessarily want to be on video. Do you agree?

• 43:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, totally. I have a client right now that's like, making a ton of money on Instagram threads. And does not require any

• 43:58Hala Taha?

  Wow.

• 43:59Speaker 01

  any video at all. Yeah, I mean, first of all, I'm bad at video is just not true. It's a skill. It's like saying, I'm bad at guitar. I've never been to a guitar lesson. I can't say I'm bad at guitar. Right? If I go to a guitar lesson three times a week for the next 10 years, I will be good at guitar.

• 44:17Hala Taha?

  Totally.

• 44:17Speaker 01

  Same as video. If you create a video Every week, three times a week, every day for the next few years, you will be good at video. It is a learned skill. However, starting with video can be very scary, very overwhelming, and you might not get very far if it's not something that's sustainable for you. So, like I said, I have a client right now that's just absolutely killing it on threads. Start with the thing that's most comfortable for you. So if that's writing, great. If that's photos, great. If that's LinkedIn, if that's Substack, what is the most sustainable? Start there, build the habit, and then slowly grow. And it's also like our comfort zone, right? Like, we gotta push the edges of our comfort zone in our nervous system. And if you overwhelm your nervous system and go straight to like,

• 45:03Speaker 01

  "I need to create all these fancy videos", it's gonna be really overwhelming and you're not gonna stick with it.

• 45:08Hala Taha?

  Yeah, and I feel like sometimes you approaching a platform differently. Like, everyone's posting reels on Instagram. But then you have like Case Kenny, who posts like little like handwritten quotes. And that's his thing, and he posts a handwritten quote every day. And he's got like millions of followers now from doing that. It can also help you stand out to think about what's your strength and how can you apply that to the platform.

• 45:30Speaker 01

  Totally. Yeah, it's like, what are you obsessed with? Like, for him, he's obsessed with like visual art, topography, writing. That's incredible. Like, what is somebody else obsessed with? Maybe you're obsessed with long-form content. Maybe you're obsessed with video editing, sunsets and landscapes. Like, that, whatever you're obsessed with, your obsession will lead you down the path that's the most authentic to you. And I love that you bring up that example because there is also no right answer. Everything I have said today about career, about content, there are some people it's not gonna apply to. There are some people that a different way is going to suit them. By doing it the wrong way is going to be better.

• 46:08Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 46:09Speaker 01

  So it's also important not to think that, "I gotta find the perfect formula that is proven to work, that always works, that will work perfectly for me." That does not exist in anything that we do, not in entrepreneurship, not in career. So figure out what's authentic to you and take baby steps towards that.

• 46:26Hala Taha?

  Mm-hmm. How did you make your first dollar online?

• 46:29Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh. The first dollar I made online was freelancing. I started posting on LinkedIn and somebody reached out and said, hey, can I get on a call with you to talk about LinkedIn? And I think I charged him 50 bucks. The first dollar I made from something outside of me was from an ebook. I, I wrote an ebook. I didn't write an ebook. I wrote LinkedIn blogs and my top performing LinkedIn blog, I copied it, pasted it into a PDF and that became an ebook. Amazing. I listed it on Gumroad and yeah, that was my first digital product sale. And today, how do you, like, what are all your different revenue streams today? Yeah, I've, I've narrowed it down a lot. I'm glad you're asking me this today and not a year ago. Cause I simplified.

• 47:14Speaker 01

  So I have my content club where we meet every single day on Zoom and I give you a content prompt. We work on it together. I have Level Up on LinkedIn, which is my LinkedIn cohort. That's very much around mindset of building your personal brand on LinkedIn and overcoming any visibility blocks. I do speaking. I have my book and I do brand deals and that's all. That's so cool. So what kind of freedom do you get from having all these diversified income streams? Yeah, I mean, it's so helpful because if something isn't going great one month, another, another income stream will, will help. And I even have things outside of my business too. I have like real estate and investments and all that.

• 47:58Speaker 01

  And it's really helpful because the market can change, social media can change. So to have backups and have that security of multiple income streams just makes me feel so much better. And they're all kind of scaling and compounding on their own independently, which is really, really beautiful. What's the thing that's like working really incredibly well right now? Either platform wise or revenue stream wise? Great question. What's working well right now for recurring revenue is getting people to commit to a year. I've tested a lot in my content club and I just find that when people commit to a year and having really solid offers of like, yes, this is a month to month subscription, but when you upgrade to a year, you get all these extra bonuses. Their results are so much better.

• 48:42Speaker 01

  Just the mindset of them being locked into a year, they're showing up way more committed. They're so much more excited. They're excited to bring in other people. And it's a win-win because that helps my revenue a ton because now I'm creating much larger ARR.

• 48:58Hala Taha?

  Yeah, inconsistency.

• 48:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:59Hala Taha?

  And then platform-wise, in terms of like getting leads to your content club, what's working?

• 49:03Speaker 01

  What's working really well right now is two things. One, on LinkedIn, storytelling, especially sharing personal stories. Um, the more vulnerable I am on LinkedIn, the more people want to work with me. And I find that true for a lot of people around me. It can be really scary to be vulnerable on LinkedIn.

• 49:22Hala Taha?

  Yep.

• 49:22Speaker 01

  Um, but I highly recommend.

• 49:23Hala Taha?

  It's back to standing out and doing what everybody thinks is the wrong thing to do on LinkedIn.

• 49:27Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly. Yeah, I mean, the thing that you struggled with is the thing people are going to connect with you over, right? Um, something else that's working really well is just giving free resources on Instagram. I love many chat. Um, adding a keyword that goes to a free resource and bringing them into my top of funnel is really, um, valuable right now.

• 49:48Hala Taha?

  Very cool. So I know one of the things that you're known for is public speaking and a lot of people who are creating online brands, that's really their end goal. They want to get speaking engagements. Maybe they want to become an author. What is your best guidance for somebody who wants to get started in speaking and get these gigs?

• 50:04Speaker 01

  If you want to get started speaking, this is a little bit of a problematic tip. You start by creating your own events. You want to keynote, make the event you're keynoting at.

• 50:13Hala Taha?

  Hmm.

• 50:14Speaker 01

  Make your own conference. Put together a get together with others and speak at it. Make a retreat that you speak at. This is one of the best ways to get speaking gigs because you're guaranteeing it. Last year at South by Southwest, I applied to be a main speaker. I didn't get it, so I made my own South by Southwest event. And I had a ton of people come and I got to keynote my own little mini, um,

• 50:38Hala Taha?

  I love that.

• 50:38Speaker 01

  conference that I made. Um, so that's how I would get started. Um, as far as how to monetize your, uh, your speaking, you gotta be posting every day. That's so, so important. Um, and when you're applying to speaking, make sure you're following up with everybody on LinkedIn. You can circumvent, like anytime there's like a speaking application, you can circumvent the entire application just by reaching out to one of the people that work on staff. Seems kind of sneaky. It is sneaky. In, in the same way that if you're job hunting, You gotta be connected to 200 recruiters. If you're looking for speaking gigs, you gotta be connected to 200 conference organizers.

• 51:17Hala Taha?

  Yeah, event planners.

• 51:19Speaker 01

  They will reach out. And then also get sneaky with the budget. So sometimes they're not gonna have, they're gonna say they don't have a budget to pay you, but they do have a budget from some other department. They might have a consulting budget, a marketing budget, whatever, and you can offer them something else, throw in something. There's always a budget that you can find.

• 51:40Speaker 01

  So yeah, those are my speaking tips.

• 51:42Hala Taha?

  Okay, so before we go, just a couple last questions. For those in corporate, what would you say is like one easy thing they can do today to become more visible at work?

• 51:52Speaker 01

  Ooh.

• 51:56Speaker 01

  I mean, if you wanna be more visible at work, one thing you can do today, go post something on LinkedIn. It really is that simple.

• 52:05Hala Taha?

  Post on LinkedIn and just put yourself out there.

• 52:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, post something on LinkedIn. What's amazing is that if you haven't posted on LinkedIn in a while, that initial post is gonna remind so many people of you. And LinkedIn often will send out that post more, right? Like if it's been a while.

• 52:21Hala Taha?

  Yeah.

• 52:23Speaker 01

  Another thing you can do is just share one win on Slack or Teams or whatever today. Just one tiny win. Share it with your boss, share it with your team, just elevate your work a little bit.

• 52:32Hala Taha?

  Yeah, well, I loved your book, Career Cheat Codes. It was awesome. I feel like it's gonna be so valuable for those in corporate. I also feel like entrepreneurs can learn a lot from it. So I end my show with two questions that I ask all my guests. The first is, and this could be related to the episode or whatever you want, what is one actionable thing our young improfitters can do today to be more profitable tomorrow?

• 52:53Speaker 01

  Ooh, one actionable thing that young improfitters can do today to be more profitable tomorrow? Love that question. Set up a free call with 10 prospects or clients. It could be a 15-minute call. What you're gonna do is you're gonna ask them their problems. So Hala, I know you really wanna build a personal brand. Like, what's in the way? Like, what are you struggling with? I really wanna understand your language. I'm gonna transcribe all 10 of these interviews on Zoom or Otter or whatever, put them in a chat GPT and pull out the language of my audience. So a lot of times when we're creating our landing pages, we're creating our social content. It's from our perspective and our words. When you flip that to your customers' perspective and words,

• 53:38Speaker 01

  you're gonna get way higher conversions and thus be way more profitable. So go give out some free interviews, ask people their problems, take their exact language and start to sprinkle that language into your marketing materials.

• 53:49Hala Taha?

  So smart. You always wanna talk like your audience so they feel like you're a like-minded friend.

• 53:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, they're like, oh, my God, how are you in my head right now? Like, that is what you want.

• 53:58Hala Taha?

  And what would you say your secret to profiting in life is?

• 54:02Speaker 01

  Hmm. Secret to profiting in life is consistency. It's just showing up every single day, even when you don't feel like it. Consistency compounds. The only way to fail the entrepreneur game, the personal brand game, is to stop. It's to quit. It's to come up with an excuse and say, I'm gonna come back in two weeks, right? Show up with a micro step every single day and it's going to compound and you will be successful.

• 54:27Hala Taha?

  Consistency is everything. It really is.

• 54:29Speaker 01

  The only thing that matters.

• 54:30Hala Taha?

  It really is. Courtney, where can everybody find more about you and everything that you do?

• 54:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, you can find my book, Career Cheat Codes, on Amazon and all the places books are sold. You can find me on Instagram at Courtlin Johnson or TikTok at Courtney period period Johnson. If you just Google Courtney Johnson, all my stuff will come up. So I hope to see you on my socials.

• 54:49Hala Taha?

  Amazing. And I'll put your links in the show notes. Thank you again for joining us on Young and Profiting Podcast.

• 54:54Speaker 01

  Thank you, Hala.

• 54:57Hala Taha?

  Well, young improffiders, what a masterclass from Courtney Johnson today. She shattered the biggest myth we've been fed, that if you keep your head down and work hard, you'll automatically get rewarded. You won't, not unless people can see your work. The real differentiator is visibility. Courtney calls it working out loud and it's simpler than you think. Start with the Monday, Wednesday, Friday rule. Tell your boss the top five Priorities on Monday, give a progress report on Wednesday, and send a win summary on Friday. That single habit builds trust, reduces micromanagement, and puts you front of mind when promotions are handed out. Next, stop optimizing for effort and start optimizing for impact, specifically your boss's goals. Know-what's are trying to achieve both professionally and personally,

• 55:43Hala Taha?

  and align your work to that. Then add one micro step beyond what's expected. It's not always about being perfect. It's about being the obvious choice. And finally, build your personal brand now. Yesterday, in fact. Post on LinkedIn Weekly, connect with recruiters, strengthen your profile with the right keywords. You don't really need to go viral, but you do need to stay consistent because consistency compounds and invisible talent stays overlooked. So stop hiding yourself. And if this episode inspired you, help Young and Profiting get seen too. Share us, comment on our show, and leave us a five-star written review. That's how we grow this movement. You can now watch all of our live and in-person interviews just like this on Spotify Video and YouTube. I also love connecting with you guys personally,

• 56:28Hala Taha?

  so come say hi to me on Instagram at YapWithHala or connect with me on LinkedIn by searching my name, Hala Taha. This is your host, Hala Taha, AKA The Podcast Princess, signing off.