Bulletproof Your Career, Avoid Layoffs and Maximize Your Earnings with Pat Romboletti

In today's episode, I have the pleasure of interviewing Pat Romboletti, a renowned author, Ted X speaker, and career coach. We dive deep into the concept of bulletproofing your career and how to navigate unexpected career changes. Pat shares valuable insights on changing our mindset about loyalty to our employers and prioritizing our own financial future. This conversation is a game-changer for anyone looking to take control of their career and financial security.

Key Highlights

[00:02:08] Changing your relationship to your career.
[00:04:51] Loyalty to a company.
[00:08:37] On Board to Bulletproof.
[00:11:36] Building your professional network.
[00:15:33] Protecting finances and career.
[00:19:13] The financial impact of getting laid off.
[00:21:31] Finding a better boss.
[00:24:32] Job loss and networking.
[00:28:04] Be thankful for your job.
[00:30:53] Membership program and coaching.

Notable Quotes

"Your first loyalty is to yourself, to your family or anybody who's counting on you, to your legacy."
"Doing your job is only going to keep you there for three to five years on average."
"Your biggest risk is not taking the risk of looking outside, not leaving a precarious, capriciously."
"The idea is not being ready to be ready for your next something is the biggest risk of all."
"Your mental health will be better. Your physical health will be better. And that is worth money."
"The impact of this is every time you lose your job, you lose money, period, not just compensation."

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Transcript

0:01

Hello and welcome to the Holistic Money Podcast. I'm your host, certified financial planner and money mindset coach, Whitney Morrison. Over the past seven years, I've taken myself from credit card debt and no savings to a seven figure net worth. I did this without a budget or a restrictive money plan, but instead smart, sustainable wealth building strategies combined with changing my relationship with money. In this podcast, you'll learn the ins and outs of my no budget philosophy, practical wealth building strategies, and key mindset shifts to make it happen. There is no shortage of information out there to tell you what to do with money, but teaching you how to think and feel about money, that's my secret sauce. If you've been waiting for a podcast that gives you actionable strategies to not only build wealth, but also feel really good while you're doing it, then you're in the right place. Let's get started. Today's episode is all about how to bullet proof your career. So you're never on the other side of a layoff or an unexpected career change or transition that you just didn't see. Coming in today's episode. I'm going to be interviewing Pat Romboletti, who is a dear friend of mine. She's also a client She is a renowned author TEDx speaker and coach She helps people change their relationship to their careers So they never experience those financial gaps that most people face when they are blindly dedicated and loyal to one career one boss and And one position, Pat is going to teach us how to think differently about the work that you do. So you not only do a great job for your employer, but you're also putting yourself and your financial future and the people that rely on you at the forefront of your decision making. This is not a conversation that you want to miss out on. So without further ado, let's get started. Pat Romboletti. I am so excited to have you on my podcast today. For so many reasons you and I have been working together on your finances for the past couple of years, but that's not what we heard to talk about today. We heard to talk about the career revolution that you are teaching so many people about how to create financial freedom and success in their careers. And so I am just going to dive right in. One of the main things that you and I talk about a lot when it comes to the work that you do with your clients. Is you tell me over and over again, and you tell your people, look, I am not a career coach. I help people change their relationships to their career. Can you tell me what that means? Yeah, I'm happy to, and I'm so excited to be here too. This is, hopefully we'll change some lives today, Whitney. Um, so the, the old paradigm of Career coaching and there's still plenty of career coaches out there out placement services. They're all there What they are teaching is consistent with an old paradigm that went away And when I say I want to fundamentally change your relationship to your career It's because corporate America changed its relationship with its Employee base, a long time ago, but it never sent out an email and nobody knew that it was happening. So, there's two things that they either, so you get a career coach and they'll teach you the land and then somebody else would come along or that same coach and say, Now, I'm going to show you how to be successful in your career and keep this job. And so, you know, what they don't teach you in the other is that that job that you got in and that you love and that you can't wait to do, which is great. It's probably going to last three to five years. And that's the best that it's going to do because the world is changing too fast. I did some research before this call because I was trying to think of what's the newest comparative to this rate of change. And it was chat GPT, which has taken over the world. Everybody's talking about it. CHAT GPT came on the scene in November of 22, 2022. So in just nine months, it has just swallowed up this, it's taken away jobs. And we have to make sure that you are always ready to be ready on your timetable, not on their timetable, because it is inevitable that there will be a disruption and you need to be ready for that. Yeah. And I want to explore this concept of blind loyalty to your employer, to your career, to the job that you have, or maybe that boss that you really love. Because one of the things that I will start to see with my clients when I'm working with them on their finances is obviously we're looking at their income and I have a lot of my clients say things to me like, You know, I know I'm underpaid, you know, in this position and I just feel like I need to stay a little bit longer and I need to really get through this project. And they have this loyalty to their employer that is so detrimental to their own financial growth and own financial future. So tell me about that kind of mindset and how people should be thinking about their careers. That kind of mindset. Is extremely common. Um, because we corporate America makes you feel that way. So here's the thing. I, I, my mantra is your first loyalty is to yourself, to your family or anybody who's counting on you to your legacy. When you're loyal to a company that cannot be loyal to you, if you know my TED talk, I say, look, there's plenty of companies that they have to chain and, and reorganize, et cetera, in order to take their company to the next level. And if you aren't ready. For what's coming in the future, they can't keep you. And they, so they make those changes to say, you know, we need people who can build cars, not people who can tend to the horses. It's sort of that, that, um, transition. And so if you, you know, haven't had the chance to catch up to build, uh, the, the car, and you're still just getting to be an expert in how to take care of the horse. You're going to have to be expended. So they, companies do what is best for the company and for the stakeholders and the shareholders, if it's a publicly traded company. And we need to, to change this paradigm to think what's best for you. And again, your philosophy on helping people is it sounds like step one is landing, but then it sounds like there are multiple steps after that. And there are things that people can be doing in their careers that number one begins with their mindset, the way that they're really thinking about the loyalty to their companies. The work that they're doing, their next move, but also real tactical things. And you have a program called onboard to bulletproof, um, which I'm intimately familiar with. However, a lot of my listeners aren't. So I want you to talk about that. I want you to talk about why you've taken that approach to Helping people with their careers and some specific things people need to be doing in their jobs to protect Themselves their financial security their financial independence Yeah, because the impact you know, you're the finance coach and the impact of this is every time you lose your job You lose money period not just compensation. So I'll have people say well I got a severance Well, that severance is, sometimes it includes your insurance, sometimes it only includes it for a certain time, so you've got this huge expense of extra insurance payment. And my idea is, get that severance, use it for your next vacation, use it to work with Whitney to buy the next right investment and buy a rental property and make it make money and not for your day to day expenses, right? So, the, the onboard of Bulletproof starts with... First, admittedly, you must do a good job in the job that you land in. Not more than enough, because you have to, the first acceptance is Your performance does not guarantee your employment, period, end of story. It, it used to, as a matter of fact, you could make mistakes and it was fine. That's not the case anymore. So doing the best job possible is not a guarantee of employment, but the way I work with my clients is, it is a guarantee that you have a good reference and that you can put those bullet points on your resume. So you need to go in and do the job they're paying you for. Absolutely. At the same time, you need to, you need to make that, that mindset change that the rules have changed and you need to change to that. No one is ever going to care as much about your career as you. That's a big other mindset change, right? Develop an unshakable confidence that what you earned the role, you deserve the role. You can do the role that you have and you can continue to Do that role for somebody else if this ends and that somebody will want you. Um, and then replacing old habits. So that includes, you know, really making sure that you always are understanding what's going on in your industry, what's going on inside your company. As a matter of fact, one of the first things we do on onboarding is identify. Inside of the company, who do you need to know and who needs to know you so that you have a network inside? Because I was asked to go in and speak and give my Ted talk to a big, big company here that had just had a major acquisition. And I said to the HR person, you do know that I teach them not to be loyal to you anymore. And she said, I do. I do, and that's because she said, I was at your presentation, um, I was at your TED talk, but she said, I want you to teach them that they need to be reaching out because we've got this wonderful mothership that came in and acquired us and there's jobs for people elsewhere in this company, but they're not looking and they're going to be kicked out. They're going to lose their job and I can't do anything about it until they start to open up their eyes. So first we say, depending upon the size of your company. Make sure that you are doing the right job, that you are, you've got a cadence with your boss so that they're not. Um, you know, worried about you and looking over your shoulder and that you've made good relationships with the right people in the company and you're constantly doing that because too often people only form a, a network in their, in their immediate, you know, department, nevermind in another department or the, the rest of the company that's on the other side of the world. Right? So started home first, but then after about 90 days when you've really ingrained yourself and you're through the, the honeymoon period, then you're starting to say, okay, what are the next companies that are going to disrupt this company? What are the next, what's the next technology? What's the next improvement that's going to disrupt this company, um, and potentially cause my loss of job? Who are those? And how do I start to build my network? Over there inside those organizations. How do I start to get to know people in the industries that are coming along to disrupt me or in the, in the companies that are coming along to disrupt me. So this forward thinking, doing my job here, but not being blind and starting to build your network. So, um, I have an, uh, a call that I do every Thursday and. There's hundreds of people on that call, and I track in that call, um, each week, how many people have landed, and this is an important one. I use the word network in that, um, in that group that on that membership or that network that goes to those calls we have had since March of 2020, which is when I started tracking it. Although I've been doing the calls for 5 years, we had 3000 plus people have landed. Of those 3, 000 plus people who have landed, only 15 landed without using a network connection. Wow. All of the rest. All of the rest said, I got the job because this person vouched for me, because I asked for this introduction, because somebody let me know about this opportunity. Um, and so, yes, you want to, you want to get that network in the place that you're going to. The, the other pieces of the puzzle in terms of learning, creating your own growth plan. The company is only going to want to do learning and development to make you better at doing the job that you have. You want to get better at doing the job that you're going to do next. And that means that you're going to have to pay for that yourself. It doesn't have to be expensive. There's a million and one ways to get educated. But you're going to have to say, You know, what is the future skill that I need to develop that they're not going to teach me that I need to have. I need to know what's happening next and I need to educate and train myself. Um, so that's important. Um, inside the company and, and externally building your personal brand. So tooting your horn inside for what you've accomplished, but you need to have a personal brand on the outside. I have many clients in my arm board to Bulletproof who. Um, you know, we've worked on getting them, um, to, they go to conferences in, in when they, if it's part of their style and personality, they're doing, um, presentations and they're on panels and they're getting known. They're becoming thought leaders, right? Yeah. As I'm listening to you describe these steps that people. should be taking in order to really protect themselves and their finances. It really kind of reminds me of the shift that I made it from my mindset. When I actually went from a corporate employee to an entrepreneur, I see so many overlaps actually just in this idea where it's like, instead of just having one job of doing the job, like for example, my role, I'm a money coach now. However, as an entrepreneur, I'm not just money coaching. I'm out there learning how to market and sell and advertise and get new clients. And so it's a very, it's a holistic approach to my work that now you're starting to introduce to people at a corporate level. You're starting to tell people, Hey, look, it's not just about focusing on getting the best job done, working 90 hours a week to do an amazing job for this company. You need to get the job done for the company. But you also need to really make sure that you are prioritizing your career. So I have some questions for you because guess what? People are going to have objections to this, but Pat, I have so much that I have to do with this job. Doing all this work that you're telling me over here, it sounds like an entirely new job. You know, I just don't have time for that. What would you say to them? Everybody doesn't have time to do this until they have all the time in the world because they don't have a job. And then they're doing it 50 hours a week. And what I ask my folks on my on board at Bulletproof, it's less than an hour a week of little bits of activity. One of my favorite books is Atomic Habits. And then I, I, as I say to those folks, all right, if you. If you make one new relationship a week, not that hard, you're doing your business, you're talking to a vendor, that vendor is a good relationship, you're talking to somebody, you go to a conference. All of this happens, much of it happens organically, I would say. We tend to get overwhelmed about what we're, we really think it's, it's the clock that's the problem. What that reaction is really, but Pat, I have this old way of thinking. About my job being safe for me and so when you tell me to do something, I've got to find a way out of it, so I'll just say I don't have time. And, and it really is, uh, we all do it for some whatever. Um, it, it happens, it's normal, but when you stop and realize, wait a minute, if I did one thing a week. 52 times at the end of the year, I'd be so much further ahead. So if somebody comes to me and says, I've been spending 40, 50, 60 hours looking for a job and I say to them, great, when you land, I'm going to teach you how to be bulletproof and it'll be maybe an hour a week at the max. And some special, you know, things that might do throughout the year, wouldn't you rather trade that for the agony and the discomfort and the constant rejection of looking for a job that is fascinating. So, so basically you're telling people to get in front of their. of their layoff, get in front of their long tenure at this company and by consistently making sure that they don't have any gaps in their income. And I love, I love actually some of the, the slides that you've shown me from your zoom calls, y'all just a little quick note. You need to get on Uh, uh, Pat's Thursday night Zoom call, because number one, you think she's fired here, listen to her on one of those calls. She will completely change the way that you think about your, your life. I mean your career and your life together. But um, one of the slides that you've showed me from your Zoom calls is the financial impact of getting laid off. Even two, three times in your lifetime for, you know, six to eight to 12 months, what that can really do to your financial future and your financial security. And that slide is so revealing because it shows a huge material impact to your wealth. And there's a something not on that slide that is also a huge impact. That's the numbers. But you and I both know, cause you do holistic money, not, not. Jamie Dimon, this is how money is made, uh, uh, money. And the other impact is that that constant on and off, on and off, on and off impacts your confidence. And all of a sudden you're not going for the jobs that you really should be going to. You are not as confident in when you do land, everything is impacted because. Every day of a job search is somebody telling you nope, not today. Nope. We don't want you. No, you don't have this gee I wish you had that it's constant constant rejection that you don't get when you're not in a job search. So you lose the money You lose your confidence and then it impacts everything after that in terms of the next roles that you try for, how hard you try for your promotions, um, and how much you go to your current employer and say, I've added this much value because people don't hire you for the hours you put in in the job. They, they hire you. For the value that you add and they don't pay you for the hours, even though it may be based on that, they're paying you for the value. The hourly rate is based on the value. And I, I want to add something else in here because there may be people listening and I want to go back to a comment that you made about, um, you know, you have a great boss, etc. There is great value in that, right? I have a client right now who has a phenomenal boss. And, she's in my onboard to Bulletproof, the company that she's in got acquired, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say acquired, they brought in two new leaders, so new CEO, new, new CFO. So, things have changed. And, she got real nervous, and she was looking at this other department inside. And I said, let's do some due diligence on that other department, because you have a really good boss who is fighting hard to keep you. I would rather you, let's just see what's going on over here. Well, turns out somebody said, yeah, I, I, I met with them and I know so and so already started to work for that other peer of her current boss, but it's hell. And she's awful and she's miserable. And now she's miserable looking for a job. And I said, look, let's keep the nice boss and let's still always keep the idea that we're always looking for another role, but it's a whole lot easier looking for another role when you're not. Not coming home all stressed out because you have a bad boss. So, and, and I said, you don't have to ever take any of those jobs. It's not, it's not like just cause the bus comes up and you're at the bus stop that you have to get on the bus. You can say, not this time, I'll wait for the next bus. But now, she's like, you know what, you're, you're absolutely right. And the other job was, it was going to pay more. I said, great, what's it going to cost you? Because a 10% raise could cost you 25% more in stress. You don't need that. That means medical bills. That means mental stress. That means you're not sleeping. You're not eating. There's all kinds of things. You pay for it one way or the other, right? Yeah. So, you know, point. That's why I want to make that point about the, the good boss is, is great, but they also are fleeting. So you still keep the good boss, but make sure you have a backup plan in case the good boss leaves. Yeah. And I love that you're talking about your mental wellness. In terms of your career too, because that is so incredibly important. I have a question. So somebody that's listening to this, they may think that this is a problem that only maybe lower level employees experience this kind of layoff, but you specialize in working with oftentimes executives, CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and You're running into the same problems at all levels. Can you talk about that a little bit, especially the confidence? Like I always get blown away when I hear you tell me about that COO that has a lack of confidence and belief in themselves to go get that next role. It's so. Illuminating for me because I understand, oh, these are not problems that are just happening when you're young in your career. This continue can continue throughout your entire career. So can you tell me about that a little bit? Yeah, for sure. I would say. 80% of my client base is vice president and above. Many are C suites, CIO, um, vice president of technology. So lots of, uh, CIO, CEO, CFO, COO, all of those. Every single one of them has some form of imposter syndrome at some point in time. And it comes, especially if you are, you're, you've made it to that pinnacle and then you're doing everything right. And you lose your job. So I think there's this confidence that whether you're entry level or, or CEO, it doesn't matter when somebody calls into question and when, you know, it's one thing if somebody says, you know, Whitney, you just, you haven't delivered this, you were late on that and they have all the litany of things and you go, well, you know, you may not accept it right away, but there's some There's some logic to the discussion, as opposed to, no, we either just trump this up because we wanted to get you out of here and not have to give you a severance package, or we're just moving in a different direction as a company and all the euphemism. And then you sit there going, wow, was I naive? And, and you might wonder like, how does it keep happening? So here's the interesting thing. You asked me in the beginning about my coaching, how I got started in doing the onboard to Bulletproof was I used to do other workshops. Um, I live in Atlanta now and I did workshops once a month and, uh, and I, whenever I do anything, I do it pretty consistently. So I had done it for, at this point, like four years and I had people that had been in my workshops before and then three years later they'd be coming back and they'd have lost their job again. And I'd say, what are you doing back in this room? Have you done nothing to build your, no, no. I got so busy and I didn't think about it. Now I'm really kicking myself and I go, well, how's your network? Well, I don't have a network cause I didn't stay in touch with people. Well, you can't keep going back to people and saying, knock, knock, knock. I don't have a job. Will you help me? After a while they go, Jay, I only hear from you when you don't have a job. It would be nice to hear from you in between. So I started looking at this and I said. What made you think that it wasn't going to happen? They said, I, I just wanted to believe it. I just wanted to believe it. So usually I have found it usually takes even at the most senior levels, like a couple of times has to happen before, you know, it's, it's hear me now, believe me later. Um, as I think it's Schwarzenegger says, um, And I've seen this with coaching over 900 people. It happens. This isn't something that I'm conjuring up, right? So what are some signs that you see in your clients that they're too dependent or too loyal to their employers? I think number one is that they don't have a Any kind of a 401 me account any kind of a savings account that says this job could end tomorrow. When I start coaching My folks in the From Envoy to Bulletproof, and remember this is like their first week on the job, and the first call I have with them, I say, I want you to, to, to think about this, and I want you to picture what would happen each Friday, I want you to say to yourself, what would happen if today Friday, Friday. The, my boss walked in here and said, sorry, your job ended every single Friday. Think about it every Friday. That big thing is not having the savings because you just don't think you need it because you're always going to have that paycheck or they'll give me a great severance. I have seen severance packages shrink and shrink and shrink and shrink. Yes. They're, they're, they're almost useless. The other sign is that you're not thinking about your network. You're not staying connected to people inside your company and you're not staying connected to people outside your company. They're not. Thinking about. What's going on in their industry or in their, in their roles. Yeah. I want to end with one final question because I see this a lot in my coaching with my clients as well, is this idea that right now the job market is really unstable and that it's very difficult to find a new job and people need to be. quote unquote thankful or happy for their current roles and not take any big risks right now. And I want you to address that because I think during any downturn in the economy, this is a commonplace that a lot of people's mindsets will go and it will keep them really stuck and small and then likely be on the deciding, you know, they're going to, someone else is going to decide for them. So can you talk about that specifically our economy today and people feeling like they should just be thankful for their current job? Well, you should be thankful for anything that you have in your life. That is great So so go ahead and be thankful but your biggest risk is not taking the risk of looking outside Not leaving a precarious, you know capriciously But the big risk is to believe That with all this disruption that you think is going on out there, and there is some, the idea is not being ready to be ready for your next something is the biggest risk of all. Like, hunkering down, if that company has a, you know, a big layoff, you're, you're there, you're It's gone, right? So being ready to be ready right now is the best way to mitigate that risk, right? And do you think that it's also an income accelerator for people to also be changing their jobs every three to five years versus just staying at that same job with that three percent inflation raise or cost of living raise? Yeah, it can be either. Um, it can help with income or a lifestyle. So what do I mean by that? Yes. You know, when I, everything that I teach, I did as a single mom when I was in corporate America. So I was never given the raises. It all went to the, my male colleagues, right? Um, but then there's the lifestyle. Um. thing, which is if you're in a job that they expect you and it is, it is, um, required that you're working 50, 60 hours a week and you don't have a life and you're not building anything outside, then you can improve your, um, quality of your life by finding a job that better matches that. You may not make more money, but you'll have greater satisfaction. Your mental health will be better, your physical health will be better, and that is worth Money that is worth so much money. All right, Pat, where can people who are listening to this podcast, who want to start to work on their relationship with their career, bulletproofing their career? Where can they find you? So thanks for asking. Um, the, the best place to come and get more immersed in my work is my free zoom calls. So, again, I've been doing them since August 2nd of 2018. Um, we have had as many as 950 on those calls. Um, during COVID, we now have between 500 and 600, as I said. And to go to, to sign up for that, you go to bulletproofyourcareer. com forward slash zoom, and you'll get a sign on sheet, and then you'll be on the list, and you'll be able to register each week for those calls. Every single Thursday night at 7. 45pm, the chat is open, and it's not... Um, it's not just me lecturing, it is a. Community that has has developed over these five years. You will meet others You'll be able to connect with others in the chat and you'll be able to expand your network without leaving your living room My website is bulletproofyourcareer. com And I also have a membership program that I've just launched that is doing fabulously And it's really taking my work and elevating it. So you get a lot of the benefit of one to one coaching without the expense of the one to one. Um, so if that's, um, meaningful to somebody, once you're on my list, then you'll start getting the information for when we launch the next round of the cohort for that. So, yes. And for those of you that are listening, I will have all of those links in the show notes in the description. So if you're wanting to find these links, that's a great place to come. Pat, thank you so much for giving us your precious time and precious energy. I know that you are a very busy woman changing a lot of people's lives, so we're so grateful to have you here. For those of you that love this episode and you maybe have a friend that you think could really benefit from this mindset shift, please send them this episode. Let's share some bulletproofing your career love. If you liked it, I also love when you leave me a review. Let me know what you liked about this or comment below and we will see you in the next episode. Have a great week, everyone. Thank you, Whitney. It's been such a pleasure to be here.

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