294: Career Help That Won't Break the Bank (But Will Change Your Life)

The career landscape has changed—and mid-career professionals are feeling the pressure. In this candid and insightful episode, John Neral shares how he’s evolving his coaching business to better serve professionals navigating job searches, career transitions, and workplace uncertainty.

After eight years of full-time coaching, John reflects on the lessons learned about offering true value in a marketplace flooded with free resources. He reveals the reasoning behind his decision to begin charging for select materials—starting with the newly updated Mid-Career Job Search Jumpstart Guide, now available for just $1.

"If you’re not willing to invest even a dollar in your career, what does that say about your commitment to your growth?" John asks, challenging listeners to reframe how they value their professional development.

The episode also features an exciting announcement: the launch of the Mid-Career GPS Membership Community—a powerful new middle ground between free content and private coaching. For $97/month, members gain access to:
✅ Weekly "Ask Me Anything" calls
✅ Monthly deep-dive masterclasses on key career strategies
✅ Direct support and coaching inside a private community

John explains how early members are already seeing real results—building accountability systems, securing more interviews, and navigating complex career decisions with greater confidence.

Key Takeaways:

• The job market has shifted, requiring mid-career professionals to act with greater urgency.
• Free resources are everywhere—but transformational results come from working with a trusted thought partner.
• The new Job Search Jumpstart Guide is just $1, emphasizing that small investments lead to greater outcomes.
• Initial coaching sessions now cost $197 to foster serious, committed client relationships.
• The Mid-Career GPS Membership Community ($97/month) bridges the gap between free advice and premium coaching.
• Private coaching packages remain available for those seeking deeper, transformational support.
• Professional coaching delivers measurable results, including significant salary growth.

Ready to invest in your career?
Explore the Mid-Career GPS Membership Community at https://johnneral.c

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Market Changes
• 4:08 Why Results Matter More Than Ever
• 6:18 The Job Search Jumpstart Guide
• 10:23 Investing in Career Development
• 15:47 The Mid-Career GPS Membership Community
• 21:37 One-on-One Coaching and Final Thoughts

Transcript

John Neral: 0:01

Hey there, from day one, this podcast has been focused on helping you find a job you love or love the job you have. That can be pretty hard right now in this job market For many of you who are fearful about losing your jobs or have been laid off. Obviously there's an urgency to get back to work as quickly as possible, and for those of you when you hear the phrase love the job you have, that may be difficult as well, given some of the organizational changes that have been happening in your business, or at your business, as well as within your industry. So my question today is how has all of this impacted my business and how has the focus shifted giving the current market about me fulfilling my mission of supporting as many mid-career professionals as possible? Well, I'm going to share that with you today, as there's been a few interesting things that have been happening behind the scenes in my business, and I'm going to share with you all of that in just a few moments. So let's get started. Hello, my friends, this is the Mid-Career GPS Podcast and I'm your host, John Neral. I help mid-career professionals like you find a job they love or love the job they have, using my proven four-step formula. Today's episode is very different because I'm peeling back the curtain and sharing with you some things that have been happening behind the scenes here in my business, and I want to start off with this.

John Neral: 1:43

If we go back five years, if we go back to the start of the pandemic, one of the things we remember from back then was that people were trying to figure out what all of this change was going to look like. Enjoying time working from home, or you took some time for some leave or some fun employment, or you were really enjoying working from home, whatever that might have been. The thing was, most of us had time to figure that out. Now, for those of you who were working full-time and continuing to work full-time whether you were a healthcare worker, a food service worker you needed to be at the work site, just like you had been pre-pandemic. You had a lot of change going on as well, and while my coaching business and practice has been full-time for over eight years now, the thing that I learned during that time was that it was an opportunity to be strategic, to meet mid-career professionals where they were and what was going to be next, and so the offers I had at the time and the programs and things that I was running were based on how the market was at that point.

John Neral: 3:05

One of the business coaches whom I follow, stacey Bayman. She says the only right offer is the one you make right. It's how we make an offer to help somebody and how we sell our coaching and our services and things. And let's be perfectly clear as a full-time coach, this is how I make my living. This is how I contribute to my household income and support my loved ones and family, and so that's important to acknowledge here, because what worked five years ago admittedly isn't entirely working right now. See what I've learned, especially over the last six months and I say the last six months because anytime there is a change in a presidential administration and we were going to have one regardless. So whether you are on one side or the other here, this doesn't matter, because the change was going to come. It was just a matter of what change was going to happen, and we've seen with this current administration's efforts around doge and cutting spending and cleaning up what they're terming as waste, fraud and abuse.

John Neral: 4:18

If you know someone who works in the federal government or you know someone who works for an agency that is impacted by changes to the federal budget more than likely. It has been extremely stressful for all of you during this time, but when I think about what mid-career professionals need, right now, more so than ever, it's about results. If they're looking for a job, they want to know how quickly they can find one. If they're looking to level up their career, they want to know how quickly that can happen. And they're looking for the support, guidance and reliable information to help them because, admittedly, there is a ton of free information and resources that are out there. There is a ton of free information and resources that are out there, whether you do a simple online search or you're using ChatGPT, or you're talking to friends, families, colleagues, co-workers and peers. More than ever, what I know mid-career professionals are seeking is a thought partner to help them make the best decision for themselves, because, as so many of my clients say, they don't want to make a mistake. They want to make sure that, whatever they're moving toward, they are moving toward with greater intentionality and specificity and clarity, for whatever that next job's going to be.

John Neral: 5:43

So what's changed? Well, more than ever, it seems like everything seems to be a solicitation. I get at least a handful of emails every day in my inbox of someone saying, hey, do you have time to hop on a call for 10 minutes? Or oh, I can get you this many leads for your business. And even in my personal email account it's constantly being bombarded by things of people saying, hey, do you want to get better sleep? Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to have more work-life balance? Do you want more time back in your day? All this stuff, and it gets overwhelming. More time back in your day, all this stuff, and it gets overwhelming.

John Neral: 6:29

So one of the things I recently did in my business was I went through a little bit of a website change and one of the things I did was I consolidated my freebies and courses section into a resources section and I cleaned some of it up. Because one of the things I saw and I did a test with this back at the beginning of the year, where I ran some Facebook and Instagram ads around a free offer that I had and the offer was for a job seekers checklist and, admittedly, it did well, organically and through paid traffic it did well. It definitely generated some interest. It didn't really convert clients and one of the things is that I'm seeing more and more that people want to hang on to something for free because there's no investment for them, even if it means they're not even investing time. I'll download it, I'll look at it later, and then it just drops to the bottom of their inbox. They never see it.

John Neral: 7:35

So one of the things I did was I took that checklist and I revamped it in a way to really speak to where this job market is right now, and I call it the mid-career job search jumpstart, and it addresses these questions what if I make the wrong move? How do I find a new job when I'm already stretched too thin and do my skills still make me competitive in this job market? Now, in the jumpstart, it walks through four key steps, and the thing that I love about a great jumpstart is that it takes you a short amount of time to give you the boost you need. So for a lot of you, you might think I just need help with this one thing, or if I could just solve this particular problem, and the jumpstart may be exactly what it is that you need to help you figure that out. So you can go on my website at johnnerrellcom forward slash resources and you can take a look at the jumpstart guide. That's there.

John Neral: 8:43

But here's what I did differently. It's not free. In fact, I'm charging a dollar for it. And this was met with some interesting pushback from some people, because I had people reach out to me and they were like John, why don't you just sell it, just give it away for free, use it as that kind of lead magnet, give it away for free, and I, as that kind of lead magnet, give it away for free. And I said you know what? That's fine, I could easily do that, but given the change in the market, I don't want people who are solely coming for all the free things right now. Now, if you've been on my list for a while, if you subscribe to my free email community, which I send out an email twice a week, great, be on that, thrilled to have you there. If you've downloaded the checklist, that's great.

John Neral: 9:35

But moving forward, what I'm doing is I'm testing this out right now to say, look, if you want the jumpstart, it's a dollar. It's about cultivating customers, but, more importantly, it's about bringing in a group of people who are willing to invest something in their career that will immediately help them for a dollar. Whatever, your thoughts are around a dollar. For some people it's a lot of money. For other people it's not right. But what I want to offer you is this If this is something you're interested in and you're wondering whether or not you should get the jumpstart guide, let me offer you this what does it say about you if you're not willing to invest a dollar in your career development and growth? Are you not worth a dollar? Are you not worth investing some time, effort, energy and, yes, money in helping you get the thing that you want?

John Neral: 10:43

For some, the transformation is about getting back to work and getting a new job. For others, it's about leveling up their career. For others, it's about stepping more into their leadership. But one of the things that's so great about career coaching is that not only is there a definite transformation, but there's a definite ROI on the back end of it. I can't promise you that you're going to get a new job. I can share with you all the things that I know that will help people get in front of the right people and have a more engaging interview and tell your story from a place of value and service and be all those things, but I can't control some of the factors that are how you actually say the words that come out of your mouth and where the company's needs are and where they're at in their hiring process and so on and so forth.

John Neral: 11:42

But what we've seen consistently in this job market, especially over the last few years, is that if you're looking at an internal promotion, you're looking at somewhere between a 6% to 10% raise, if not more. You're looking at somewhere between a 6% to 10% raise, if not more. If you're taking your expertise elsewhere, to a different organization, you might expect that to be somewhere in the 10% to 15% increase in your salary. So, an investment in coaching you could essentially for the lack of a better phrase pay yourself back by getting that new job and the additional compensation that comes from it, and then reap the benefits of it year after year after year. For those people who work in the health coaching space, they share a similar message. How's your life going to improve when you're 5, 10, 20, 50 pounds lighter? You're more flexible, you can play with your kids better, you're able to do the things that you love without having the pain and stress on your joints and your bones and your muscles.

John Neral: 12:47

There is a definite transformation at the end of it that we couldn't even attach any amount of money to. That we couldn't even attach any amount of money to. So where do you want to invest in your career development and growth? You're investing in your career development and growth right now by listening to this podcast. This is a free piece of content I put out every single week. You can join my email community twice a week Wednesdays and Fridays and get career and leadership strategies and information and things to consider about as you build your mid-career path to whatever's going to be next.

John Neral: 13:29

You can follow me on social media, be it on LinkedIn or Instagram. You can follow me there. Media, be it on LinkedIn or Instagram, you can follow me there All those free things. But now we're going to take it to a different level. So another thing that's changed in my business is I stopped doing quote unquote free sessions.

John Neral: 13:51

A lot of coaches out there and I did this initially at the start of my business is I would invite someone to come to a free call. We would do a free coaching session and then, if they wanted to hire me after that, they could. What I started noticing was that more and more people were coming onto those calls with no intention of buying, and I know this because I asked. And I asked them after the fact, when they said, no, I'm not going to hire you, and I said really why no? I just know I can get a free call from a lot of coaches, so I'm just going to use that. That's not something I wanted to do in my business anymore, so I started charging and so now, if you want to book an initial session with me I call it a leadership and career strategy session the cost for the session, for 45 minutes, is $197. And I offer this at an introductory rate.

John Neral: 14:52

And I do this because there's an exchange of value. You're going to come onto this call. We're going to work through something very specifically about your career or your leadership. We're going to make some steps toward achieving that goal or getting you information you need. And then, if you want to hire me after that call, you can and I'll apply that $197 to the cost of a three-month coaching package. But if you want my time, if you want my expertise, if you want to take this to a different level, that means there is a different level of engagement in how you and I are exchanging value and there's a charge for that. This is a different level of engagement in how you and I are exchanging value, and there's a charge for that. This is a service.

John Neral: 15:40

But then I got thinking what if not everybody wanted a coach? What if not everybody could afford to hire a one-on-one coach? Could afford to hire a one-on-one coach? What if there was something that would be the place for mid-career professionals to go to, where they could get information and resources and questions answered and training and support to help them navigate their mid-career journey at a price point that was not only affordable but had such an incredible value attached to it? And then I got thinking when I launched my coaching practice over eight years ago and I left my full-time job as a training and staffing director after a 25-year career in education and I left because I wanted to help more people than I've ever helped in my career, and I believe I'm doing that. But I wanted to do this at a different level of engagement, and so what I'm about to share with you is, without question, the most exciting thing that I have done to date. So I'm excited to announce to you that the Mid-Career GPS Membership Community is now live.

John Neral: 17:30

Get their questions answered from me about what they're doing to search for jobs, how they're approaching different networking conversations, how they're improving their interview strategies, and we do this all within the container of the membership community. Now you can go on my website, johnnerrellcom. There is a tab right there to click on the membership and learn more about it. But I soft launched this membership with my email list and for the last two months we have been working through and ironing out some of the kinks and the bugs and making sure that all of this was working.

John Neral: 18:05

And so, inside the membership community, what you get is you get a weekly AMA call with me. That is an ask me anything call, where you can come on the call and you can ask a question. You may be able to get coached, but I'm there for you for one hour to get whatever questions you want answered. I'm happy to be there for it. You will also get a monthly masterclass that digs into topics far differently and more in-depthly than what we do on this podcast. So, for example, a couple of months ago, the monthly masterclass was all on the belief triad, this mindset technique, about how you see yourself, your skill set and the organization to align those things, to go in and tell your story from a place of value and service whenever you're networking or interviewing. It is a game changer to how you approach those things.

John Neral: 19:11

When you come into the Mid-Career GPS Membership community, you get access to all of the AMA calls, you get access to all of the monthly trainings and you have the ability, at any time you want, to go in and post a question within the community and have me respond and answer it. So you're probably sitting there wondering, john, that's all great, how much? Well, again, my goal here was to make this affordable but invested. So you can come into the Mid-Career GPS membership community right now. You can go to johnnarrellcom forward slash membership. Come in right now for $97 a month. Or you can come in for the year plan, which is $970. So you essentially get two months for free $170. So you essentially get two months for free. The people who are in there right now they're building support systems around accountability, goal setting, navigating their interviews more confidently, avoiding getting ghosted in their interviews because they are asking different and more strategic questions at the end of their interview to set agreements about those next steps. And so if a community, if a membership community, is of interest to you, I hope you will go check that out. I'd love to have you come on inside and be a part of this. Like I said, you can come in for one month for $97. If it's not for you, okay, but you can come in for that one month and get access to everything that's already in there and there is a great amount of information and every single month we are building and growing upon it to make this even more so. The stop for mid-career professionals to get the support and information they need. So I hope you'll check that out.

John Neral: 21:16

But the last thing is one-on-one coaching. I truly value the relationship I have with my private coaching clients and that is not going to change. One-on-one coaching is absolutely a premium and I recognize that it couldn't be my only offer, which is why I created the membership community, but right now my three-month coaching package is so refined to help you get the quickest results possible. My clients see incredible growth and change just in their mindset and the strategies that they are implementing in their job search within the first two sessions. And, admittedly, especially if you are uncertain about where your career is headed or what might be next or you're feeling stuck, undervalued, underutilized in your current role the ability to work through that in a one-on-one coaching relationship is nothing short of transformational. Short of transformational. There is a transformation that happens when you become happier in your career or you are clearer about where your career needs to go. It is that tangible result where you're able to say here's what I do, here's why it's of value, here's the results I have and here's where I'm taking this next step in my career.

John Neral: 22:53

If you want to know some of the results my clients get, all you have to do is look at my website, look at the recommendations that are on my LinkedIn profile. But one of the things you will see is how important and special that one-on-one relationship is. That's the premium, that's the level of service you get by working with me one-on-one. That is far different than by listening to this podcast or by being a member of the community, even though I'm the only person leading the community right, so you're getting me there, but it's just at a different level. So if you're interested in learning more about my one-on-one coaching, I will tell you. That is the next step in the website redesign that's going to be up on the website shortly.

John Neral: 23:42

But if you want to know the details more specifically about my one-on-one coaching package. All you need to do is email me at john at johnnerrellcom, or message me on LinkedIn. I will send you the Google Doc. You'll see all the stuff that's in there. But again, if you're looking for a one-on-one coach, I'd be honored to talk with you further about it. Maybe the first step for you is let's go ahead and do that leadership and career strategy session, and if that's a benefit to you and you like how I coach and how we work during that session and you want more, we just roll it into a three-month coaching arrangement in that regard. So lots of things.

John Neral: 24:21

So, whether you're looking for free things like this podcast or my email newsletter community, you're looking for some of the lower ticket services, be it the Jumpstart Guide or my digital courses or the LinkedIn audit that I offer on my website, or you want to be part of an engaging and thriving mid-career membership community, or you're looking for a one-on-one coach, here's what I want you to know. This is my action about the things that are happening in this job market to best serve you. If I'm the right person to help you, great, I'm here for you. I am here for you on whatever level you need or want, and if I'm not, that's okay too. There's a lot of other great people that are out there. I know what I do and I know the value I bring. So all of this is simply in response to what's been changing in this job market and for now, this is what feels right. This is the offer that I make right to serve you at whatever level you need or you want, and I'm here for you, and I will be back with you again next week with another episode. And what's really exciting is we are coming up on 300 episodes of this podcast. I can't wait Such a milestone, so excited to share that with you.

John Neral: 25:56

Thank you for being a part of the journey with me on all of this. If you want more information, you can visit my website at johnnerrellcom, or find me on LinkedIn at John Nerrell, or on Instagram at John Nerrell Coaching. But until next time my friends remember this you will build your mid-career GPS one mile or one step at a time, and how you show up matters. Make it a great rest of your day. We got this. Thank you for listening to the Mid-Career GPS podcast. Make sure to follow on your favorite listening platform and, if you have a moment, I'd love to hear your comments on Apple Podcasts. Visit johnnarrellcom for more information about how I can help you build your mid-career GPS or how I can help you and your organization with your next workshop or public speaking event. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on social at John Darrell Coaching. I look forward to being back with you next week. Until then, take care and remember how we show up matters.