Afternoon Pint
Afternoon Pint is a laid-back Canadian podcast hosted by Matt Conrad and Mike Tobin. Each episode, they invite a special guest to join them at a pub or microbrewery to get to know them a bit better. Conversations cover a wide range of topics, including Entrepreneurship, business, Arts, pop culture, music, science, society, Life stories, experiences, you get the idea...
Our aim is to create a show for everyone (even non-Canadians.) We create a welcoming atmosphere where guests can share their perspectives with transparency. Essentially, Afternoon Pint is like heading to the pub after work to catch up with some friends through your headphones or stereo. We are Nova Scotia's #2 podcast, but we pretend we are number 1!
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Afternoon Pint
Jen Warrington - Helping others realize their career goals and finding the right path for herself ( CEO & Founder of The Warrington Group, Career Accelerator & Career Fuel Podcast)
Have you ever considered how transferable your current skills might be in a different career or industry? Join us at Garrison Brewery as we chat with recruitment advisor and career strategist Jen Warrington. Jen takes us through her inspiring journey of launching her own company, The Warrington Group, her new podcast, Career Fuel and her new Career Accelerator program available to everyone.
Jen's story is a testament to the power of having a great reputation & maintaining a network. She shares how tools like LinkedIn became pivotal in her mission to help individuals find fulfilling jobs with better compensation. We unravel her unique approach in guiding others through career redefinitions,
From entrepreneurial challenges to our 10 Questions, where we ask Jen her expertise on Good Job Interview vs. Bad Job Interview questions, this episode covers a wide range of practical insights. Hear about the importance of self-awareness in personal and professional growth, and how building a supportive team can mitigate individual limitations. We also engage in an enlightening conversation about authenticity in business and the impact of kindness and grace on personal well-being and the world. Our discussions aim to inspire listeners to pursue growth, make positive contributions, and embrace their strengths for a brighter future.
Below are a couple of Links from Jen that can help you on your new career journey: https://thewarringtongroup.teachable.com/p/linkedin-launchpad
Check our her Career Fuel Podcast: https://feeds.transistor.fm/career-fuel
Kimia Nejat of Kimia Nejat Realty
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Cheers, cheers. Welcome to the Afternoon Pint. I'm Mike Tobin. I am Matt Conrad. I'm Jen. Sorry and who do we have with us today?
Speaker 2:I'm Jen Warrington, jumping right in Awesome, jumping right in Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 3:That would show assertiveness in an interview. Right, right, yeah, exactly 100%, 100%.
Speaker 2:We shall let the person ask the question all the way through first there you go Neverwarranted.
Speaker 1:what do you do?
Speaker 2:I'm a recruitment advisor and I am a career strategist, so I work with organizations to help them find talent for their organizations, but I also help career seekers find jobs that they love and be paid what they're worth.
Speaker 1:Amazing, I like that, and you founded your own company.
Speaker 2:I did found my own company.
Speaker 3:That's how she found what she's worth. Yeah, that's how I know what.
Speaker 2:I'm worth.
Speaker 1:Very true, very true. That was a great segue.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 2:So I spent a number of years in corporate. My last position was 10 years with a global financial services organization. I was impacted through a global restructure in 2020. I found it in February that I was losing my position Wasn't because of the pandemic. At that point it was hey, if you're traveling, you're traveling.
Speaker 1:be careful it was not, don't leave your driveway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fast forward to when I finished up with that company the end of march of 2020. Um, it was don't leave your driveway. So I knew very early on that I wanted to go on my own. Um, I knew it was going to be recruitment focused, because I'd been in recruitment since 2007. What I didn't know was was that everybody was going to either be like laid off, terminated, stuck back at home hating what they were doing?
Speaker 2:And so that whole side of the business where I was writing resumes, prepping people for interviews, helping them set up a LinkedIn profile so they could find something new.
Speaker 1:You were always like redefined, yeah, completely. So for me it was like redefined, yeah, completely.
Speaker 2:So for me it was like that just happened very organically. So now the business is recruitment focused on one hand and then it's career strategy on the other, because it leveled the playing field in so many ways and people then really took inventory and took stock of like I'm not happy, I want to do something completely different. How do I get a better paying job and?
Speaker 2:or I'm at home now and I don't want to go back into an office, yeah, a lot of it, so that really, again, that was not part of the plan but it's been, you know, a great part of the business as it's evolved. So we're now four years in.
Speaker 1:We celebrated four years in September so you started to kind of pivot. You started to kind of go from just doing kind of the recruitment type stuff to really helping people repurpose themselves. Is that, yeah, kind of right?
Speaker 2:a hundred percent because when I started again the recruitment was the focus, but then it was. I have a very heavy presence on linkedin and always have because as a recruiter.
Speaker 2:That's where you're going to find the talent in the market. And the company that I recruited for I had business units across Canada, so I had a very widespread network. I wasn't limited to only Halifax, and it's like the people were messaging like I just got laid off, or I don't think I want to go back into an office, or or, or there's all of these things just like this just sucks and I don't want to do this anymore. So for me it was okay. I needed to pivot because at that point companies really weren't hiring but, people were being impacted.
Speaker 2:So I was like how do I do both of these things and give career seekers the opportunities to see everything through the lens of a recruiter?
Speaker 3:Because we don't often see that right. You don't really get that inside of it. So it's a huge thing. I mean you said four years ago. So that means you actually started right in the thick of a pandemic, which is a scary enough thing to do to open your own business anyway, and then say, like I'm going to write my own paycheck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in a pandemic.
Speaker 3:In a pandemic. I mean, it's scary enough. Non-pandemic, right, right for sure. Like you know, you have to go and obviously get registered in your business and all that stuff. But like how, what does that look like kind of day one to say like I am going to take my skills and I'm going to connect with companies and find people to, you know, connect with jobs and all that stuff. Like how do you, how do you do that day one, what does that look like?
Speaker 2:Thinking back to day one. So the day I found out that I lost my job was the day after family day in 2020 okay and I was my son at the time would have been 12 and he was homesick from school.
Speaker 2:and then my uh, a leader on the team was like hey, do you have five minutes, which wouldn't have been uncommon jumped on a skype, got the message that this was happening and I called my husband and I was like I think I lost my job. He said what do you think you lost? And Thank you Lost. And I was like well, don't, I don't know, I don't, I wasn't expecting it.
Speaker 3:Like we were going through a restructure.
Speaker 2:but I didn't really and he's like, okay, I'm coming home. I'm like no, no, I'll be fine. And by the time he got home, which was probably about an hour, I was like I'm going to go your net worth, as we all hear when we're having like conversations around networking and building and, fortunately for me, I had a very extensive network and a lot of hiring managers that I had worked with over the course of, at that point, 14 years had all dispersed to other organizations.
Speaker 2:So once they knew I wasn't with just one straight organization and they saw on LinkedIn like I started to have those conversations. So the plan was nurture the relationships, let people know that I'm available, Um, and then obviously, once everything shut down, it was like oh shit. I don't, I don't have a computer Cause I gave it back to the employer that I was with I had my phone the LinkedIn app, a dollar store notebook and a pen and that was it, that was it.
Speaker 2:So, um, I was fortunate enough that I had some people like you should talk to, so-and-so they could maybe help. Or you should like put your ideas through someone who can almost provide some mentorship. So I did that, but honestly I always say like, yes, it's very brave to start your own business and really you have to go into it like with a level of being naive, of like you don't know what you're doing and you're just going to wing it into some degree, but for me it was very much like I didn't have a plan B.
Speaker 2:I knew I didn't want to go back to work for someone else. Cause you say, like we need a stable job, Like you give someone 10 years and then here's a six month severance See you later Like that's not stable Same thing,
Speaker 1:happens so many people.
Speaker 2:Right. And again, before the pandemic I didn't really see how often that was happening. So for me it was like how do I just go and like make it happen and figure it out for myself and lean on some of the right people that could provide some direction?
Speaker 2:So again, like you got to set up your business number and you need to like make sure you've got your HST and all of those things, but I just, I don't know, I got really defiant of like you're not going to do this to me again. Right, and at the same time it is brave, like I was saying, but had they not pushed me right Like, if they had not said here, you go yeah.
Speaker 2:I was very content in like I love the work I was doing, I loved the team I was on, I had work-life balance, like I could work from home. I could leave early if I needed to. So I had that before. It was really a thing. So if they hadn't said, here you go, I probably would still be there today, always wishing that I was starting a business. And then they were like there you go and I'm like, okay, well, now's the time.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, that's the thing. It's like a lot of people, the biggest leap is leaving a good, stable job that you like, you know, or at least whether you like Right, or at least whether you like it, or whether you're just kind of like, yeah, I like this, I can, you know, whatever right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:But that's the biggest hindrance from someone who's just saying like, ah, screw it, I'm just going to do what I want and be my own boss.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey, buddy, we forgot to mention the beers again and where we were at.
Speaker 3:Oh, what were the beers we were drinking? The Oxford Tap Room? How do you remember it? We were having the Ukrainian Pilsner, or something like that.
Speaker 1:I forget what it was called Ukrainian Pilsner. But by the time this episode's out it's going to be all gone.
Speaker 3:We got the last can we got the last one. So come back to Garrison next year.
Speaker 2:But it's pretty good.
Speaker 3:It's pretty good, but it's really tasty though. So yeah, it kind of it. Definitely there's a certain power that you kind of give yourself, I guess, when you go off on your own and work for yourself, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again, like, there's scary moments, for sure, but I think what I have learned in hindsight because, again, you don't know until you're in it what I've learned in hindsight is that the scariest pieces are like not taking the risk.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right Like again, like like married have a mortgage. I've got two kids, both in competitive sports, like all the things.
Speaker 3:That's what I'm saying, though. It's all those things that you're like. If I leave my job, how do I pay for all those things?
Speaker 2:And that was the conversation my husband and I had and, like he's, like you know, obviously you have a severance and I want to be supportive. However, and he at the time was in a position that like not that you could never get fired from, but like he was in a position where like that was not likely to happen.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So his was stable and so I was like well, I just need the six months that I've got the severance Like give me that runway because if not, I'm going to regret it.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:And I thought okay, I just so. When I was a company, I was with all in total compensation, with base and bonus. I was about 80,000. So I was doing pretty good right, 80,000 in Halifax is not bad, and so I was like I just need to replace that 80K Like that's all I need to do, and again mortgage kids. You know all the things like the grownup responsibilities and in less than 12 months I almost tripled that.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:Amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:So I always say, like you, gotta, you do have to have a plan, but sometimes that plan just needs to be you're going to figure it out.
Speaker 1:Yep, trust yourself.
Speaker 2:Trust yourself, Bet on yourself, Yep, and I say to people a lot like your family loves you but, they're also because they look at you through that emotion and they want to be protective and they want to paint the picture of what reality might potentially be doesn't always give you the confidence to do something that you're wanting to do.
Speaker 1:Sometimes people want you to make the safe decision yeah and they say well no, she's starting off your own. That's ludicrous. You have a good job. You're already respected. Why would you do something else? Yeah?
Speaker 3:I think most people are like that, honestly, like I. I know people in my life who have uh, this may not be nice to say, but it it's like they have.
Speaker 2:They're not listening, are they? They probably are, but whatever.
Speaker 3:But they have a mentality of mediocrity.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:And there's nothing necessarily wrong with that, right. I mean, we need people like that that are happy working for someone else, that are happy going through all that and everything. And I say that like I have a Mike and I both have day jobs that we enjoy and I like going to work and they pay us, you know, obviously they take care of our bills and everything, but we also are doing this and this is. You know, we make a little bit of money on this, but this is helps kind of help get our creative kind of juices flowing. We get to talk to interesting people and like gain a whole bunch of perspective that we wouldn't normally get to have with this. So, whether this, whether this podcast, takes off and uh, you know, we become the next joe rogan yeah exactly.
Speaker 3:We do that or or this is more bob and doug. I say, yeah, okay, bob and doug sure but or this is what we do for a long, long time and we just have sponsors that kind of help us float along doing it. Um, either way, like I think we're going to enjoy continuing to learn from this and talk to interesting people like yourself, because we did mention this before, we've been trying to get you on for a year.
Speaker 1:So I got to say you are a busy lady. Matt and I had lists and we wrote them down. We started this podcast well over a year ago and this was before it even started. So we were on LinkedIn and we were ticking the boxes and I was like Jennifer Warrington and then in my mind it was like resume expert yeah, she'd be cool to talk to.
Speaker 3:That was his main focus at the start, but then you grew into much more than that.
Speaker 1:You kind of evolved a lot too right, I mean, in fairness, from even when we saw you then and what I knew you as and what I know you as today. It's quite different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been a huge evolution and I think we all go into something with okay, this is what I want the goal to be, or the outcome to be, and I think when you are on your own that that changes not minute by minute, but again like you never know what's going to happen when you talk to somebody. And again resumes and prepping people for interviews are just saying, hey, you've got a shit ton of skills that you don't see, but once we identify them and you can go this direction or that direction or whatever.
Speaker 1:That wasn't part of the plan like at all and the very first person like I fell into a career in recruitment like that wasn't like yeah, tell me about the first person who just was sick of what they were effing doing and wanting to make a change. I mean not the first person, but like kind of the first story I'm going to tell you my most favorite story.
Speaker 2:So it was in like 2021. So I was kind of in the mix of it. But I had a gentleman reach out to me through like somebody said you should reach out so I think it was through LinkedIn originally and he said I've been in the same career for 20 years. I need to make a change, can you help me? And I was like sure, like tell me a little bit about that. So Cole's Notes version is he was a pastor in a church for 20 years.
Speaker 3:His dad was the pastor, how he was a pastor in a church for 20 years. His dad was the pastor.
Speaker 1:How do you quit God?
Speaker 2:Oh, I thought I cut myself off. Yeah, so he's like I'm a pastor in a church. I've been there for 20 years. My dad was the pastor before me and at first I didn't really know him very well and then, once I got a little bit more comfortable, I was like you do know that. It's not like, hey, you're going to do this when you grow up. You were conceived with the idea that you were killing it, Right. So there was a component of I'm leaving something that I've been like.
Speaker 2:I grew up that way and now I've done it for 20 years. Um, family obviously wasn't super stoked about the fact that this was happening and in the back of my mind at the beginning I was like I don't know how I'm going to help them, but I know that I need to help them and we had some really great conversations. We worked through again, like you know, when you think pastor, you're like okay, sunday service and then you like go out and you volunteer in the community and that's it. And as we went through everything that he was doing, then my wheels started turning and he's my most favorite story because he's an incredible human being. Um, but we got him to a point that as a pastor, you're making about $30,000 a year in salary and four months later he was interviewing for a director of operations position and he negotiated a first-year salary of $93,000.
Speaker 3:That's pretty good. That's pretty good, right?
Speaker 2:So a $63,000 salary increase.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 2:Because there were so many and at the beginning it was. I've got a degree in theology and a master's of divinity.
Speaker 3:Do I have theology and a master's of divinity. Do I have to go back to school? And I was like I actually really don't know, but let's try to figure that out. Right, so, but there's skill sets in that, though, right, right, like, if someone, any, if anyone's a pastor and they're, like you know, a leader in whatever it may be, they're a leader of their community. Yes, they. You're still networking, you're still developing relationships, you're building strong relationships. Yeah, so I mean, those are all transferable skills.
Speaker 2:Yes, right, but the people don't see that Right. So it literally was he had operations background financial management Right yeah. He like global missions that they were doing and bringing together people in like teams communication skills, like as we uncovered it, and again totally oblivious at the forefront or not knowing. I didn't know the depth, and so what? That is the reason why it's my favorite story is because, like the direction that he went in, like the salary, I mean three times your base salary, like that's great right.
Speaker 1:That's life changing, but also a change in purpose and direction and everything.
Speaker 2:Right and so. So that's my most favorite story because of the fact that one he wasn't happy, he wasn't feeling fulfilled, he didn't feel he had his purpose, he didn't want to let down his family, which majority of people. So I'm 49. And so when I'm talking to people between, I'm going to say, the ages of like 35 to 55. And I asked them like why did you pick the career that you picked? My mother was, so now I am. My father was, so now I am. My father was so now I am. Or my parents had really crappy jobs and they were like you're going to do this because this is good.
Speaker 1:Now I've got to ask you about the pastor, though. Is he a ladies' man now at the clubs all night partying, or has he stayed like a several other than he stayed level-headed? He has an amazing family.
Speaker 2:He just is like I'm going to stick here with my family and has two beautiful young children and yeah, so he but yeah, like you. Just you don't know Right, and you're following what I find, when people are unhappy, it's because they're not doing what it is that they want to do and they're listening to the outside noise.
Speaker 2:And so, as a mom now, so my son is 16, my daughter's 10, but my son again, we're like grade 11. We've got to be thinking about what's next and he doesn't really know and I'm like that's okay, you don't need to know, but it's still. Again, people are okay with mediocrity. So then it's like well, if you don't go to a university or you don't do that and I'm not knocking education on any level whatsoever If you want to be- a doctor.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask you about this, yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we clearly know you want to be doctor, lawyer, accountant surgeon, whatever that professional is, you need to go to school, then you need that, of course.
Speaker 2:Right, but not everybody's going to do that the same way. Not everyone's going to start a business and I don't think like. Again, my story's a little bit different. Like I have high school, I don't have university.
Speaker 2:I see the value in it now that I wouldn't have appreciated it back when I was 21 or 25, or even maybe in my early 30s, like now. It would be a totally different conversation. But I think, depending on where you want to go and what you want to do, you have to stop listening to the outside noise and it's really hard because we lean on our family and our families don't always have high risk tolerance, which is okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's, very true.
Speaker 2:Right, but at the end of the day, knowing that on the other side of figuring out that plan and making sure that you're confident in the skills you have, like you can like again. The pastor is now a director of operations for a beauty supply company.
Speaker 1:Where's, where's the correlation?
Speaker 2:but he had all of the skills and he's been there for like over two and a half years Amazing and he's been there for like over two and a half years.
Speaker 3:Amazing, right, that's an awesome story. Yeah, that's my favorite one. No, that is a really good story and I think people, when you were talking about like it is what it is like people follow what their parents do and all that stuff and not really kind of going out and branching out of it.
Speaker 3:In the case, this isn't something because I'm a big proponent of this is the insurance industry. That's what we're in and I am actually a pretty big proponent of it. I only have my high school and, honestly, like I have a pretty good paying job that you know I've done pretty well at and I've been in the insurance industry for 13 years. Okay, I wish I knew about it sooner. If I was 18 years old and you know I didn't go to university cause I honestly was just like I don't know what I want to do and I don't want to spend thousands upon thousands of tens of thousands of dollars to go and try to figure it out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I wish I knew at the time, because it costs $1,200 to take a course and get licensed. And I'll tell you right now people who are starting in the insurance industry now are making 50 grand like year one Okay. So it's one of those things that it's like and it's almost foolproof.
Speaker 1:Just want to double, double down on what Matt said. The other thing you can do is really get involved with your community. Yes, with different arts programs and stuff Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I want. I probably wish I went to art school and stuff Never did. But what I did do is I got involved with community theater to learn how to be a director. I did every single thing you could think of to make a play Right. So now I know a play inside out. Then I got into producing plays and I produced a whack of them Right, because I really knew my stuff after trying every position out and the same as this, this audio thing it probably comes from doing recording music with my friends and then that kind of came into doing sound design for theater, okay, and then that turned into this, like you know. So it's so crazy. Yeah, you get out there and explore yourself. I mean, education is very valuable, but it's also valuable just to invest in yourself and what do you really want to do and just go do that thing yeah, and I think two things.
Speaker 2:That one would be that sometimes the education is in the doing right like I fell into recruitment. I lived in toronto for two years. Um, I was working for a financial advisor, so I was like an admin support in an office in toronto. Came back here, I had met my husband. He, uh, was living here and not in a position where he could relocate. So I was like, well, my family's here, I'll move back and I'll find a job. And so I fell into recruitment.
Speaker 2:Like my background was in HR, my background was sales, but recruitment is sales right, because you're selling you on the service and telling you on the candidate, selling the candidate, on the opportunity and all the things yeah, question for you.
Speaker 3:yeah, that, though, is like you were saying you have your high school, you don't have your post-secondary, correct, and you were probably going to just want to answer it. But how do you get someone to hire you in an HR recruitment role? Because they always seem to be looking for people who have a degree in HR right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So what I'm going to say and this is probably maybe a little disruptive inside the industry, but I don't believe that recruitment fits under the HR umbrella.
Speaker 3:I agree with you there.
Speaker 2:Right, I have to.
Speaker 3:I I've interviewed people for 10 years now and I don't have a degree in anything. And guess what?
Speaker 2:I know how to hire good people Well and so then I guess I can't hire for you. But no, but so what I think is like when you are a true HR generalist and you're thinking like policies, procedure, performance management, employee engagement, you know union and labor relations, all the things, I do think it needs to be something specialized. And while recruiting is hiring and that falls under the human resources umbrella, I feel like if you're a really true HR person, you don't love recruitment and if you're really good at recruitment, you don't love HR.
Speaker 3:I agree with that. Right, some of the best people like you know, some of the best HR we'll call it HR people, for sure. Some of the best people like you know some of the best HR we'll call it HR people, for sure who end up getting in recruitment or whatever. Like I find that they're just, they're different personalities. A hundred percent. The people who I've enjoyed working with the most in a management hiring capacity are like the recruitment people, right, and then the HR people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, no offense, but no, but I think I think too like it's a bit more of like an analytical process driven role you need.
Speaker 3:Those people don't get me wrong you need them.
Speaker 1:So matt also hates toby in the office.
Speaker 2:If you ever seen that show, yeah, yeah he was definitely the strangler, 100% the strangler and so for me, I think too, like again, I went into a recruitment agency with my resume and was like I just moved back from toronto, I need a job. I'm sleeping on my mom's couch. I've met a guy I'm trying to build a life. He already had his career, it was all the things. And so I actually met with a recruiter who was phenomenal, spent two hours with me, went through what do you like, what do you not like? Tell me about your experience. What do you see yourself doing? Point, I was like I just don't want to sleep on my mom's couch anymore.
Speaker 2:Like I want to get my own place and I had had my own place in Toronto and all the things. And so I said I've applied for this position through her, that I like I was not overqualified for it but like I would have been successful in that role given I had, like I'd, sold photocopiers for Xerox into the.
Speaker 3:US by phone like you know what I mean so.
Speaker 2:I knew that I could do this particular role. And she said I'm not going to put you forward for it. And I was like what? Like I check all the boxes and she's like, but you're going to be bored in six months and you're going to leave. And then I was like, yeah, but I need it, like again, I need a job. So we kind of had this conversation and I she just said, like leave it with me and let me see. I, like you know you met with her. I'd like you to come in, like to have a conversation. So it's like sure, I was like I could have done that job, like and he's like no, I realized that.
Speaker 2:And then we had a great conversation and he said what if you came and did sales for us and so sales in the recruitment industry is you go out like you network, you talk to businesses, you. So it wasn't HR, it was sales, right. And then as the role evolved, it was for me that I was like okay, I can find the business, but now like let me fill it Let me help find candidates.
Speaker 2:I want to understand, because I like talking, I like learn, I love everybody's stories and you know, not the more sad of a story or more of a challenging story the better. But I learned something from those conversations right.
Speaker 2:So I was like okay, I love business because I had always wanted to do something, so I'm learning about businesses, I'm learning what's working, what's not working. I'm talking to all kinds of different people. So it just again, it was very organic. And then I had my son in 2008. And then in 2009, we were going through the recession and the economy was in the state that it was in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So companies weren't spending money on a recruitment firm. So my position was like we have something for you, but it's kind of up in the air. And so I went on LinkedIn and I found there was a three-month contract with Eastlink at the time for a recruitment specialist.
Speaker 3:Oh, there you go. That's why you like her so much. There we go.
Speaker 2:And I reached out through LinkedIn and I ended up it was three months, and then it got extended to six and then it became two years, and then I got headhunted over to I got a soft spot for Eastlink to this day.
Speaker 1:I worked there for 10 years.
Speaker 2:So when were you there? Because maybe we overlapped? There.
Speaker 1:I left. You got me out of Eastlink at one point.
Speaker 2:I got you out of Eastlink.
Speaker 1:Oh shit, and six months later I went back to Eastlink.
Speaker 2:So when I took you out of there, where did I take you?
Speaker 1:I don't want to say.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's fair oh.
Speaker 3:I know where you went. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're not going to talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're not going to talk about that, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so anyways, and it just didn't work out it wasn't bad. They were great people, just didn't work out and I actually went back to Eastlake.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:They took me back.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 1:You saw me at a pizza shop late one night crying drunk. My old boss, yeah.
Speaker 3:But no but, and should be selling insurance with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but I mean back to you though. So I love this idea of pivoting right, because I hear people every day. I mean friends, family, whoever they're not happy in their careers.
Speaker 1:Right, and I mean what I think. Everyone has their own solution, for sure. What I think, for me, what really helps, is doing things like this, these creative endeavors that we do on the side, gives us a few bucks so we can justify you know that I wasn't having a beer, for sure and at the same time, we're feeding that creative muscle. So for you, what do you think that like people that are looking at doing the pivot into a completely different career. What should they be doing?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a loaded question.
Speaker 1:I know, sorry, sorry for the next two hours that I'm going to talk, so I think first and foremost it is blocking out the noise right.
Speaker 2:So then we don't want to think like, oh well, you know, that's not really a tangible exercise, but like fossil kind of follow through, like you're going to block out the noise. Sit with yourself for a hot minute, whether it's in your car or over a beer or your journal, whatever Just sit where it's quiet and you don't necessarily have the input. Again, we love our family and friends, but they're coming through their own lens.
Speaker 1:Step one block them out.
Speaker 2:Block them out. Step two get quiet with yourself and be like, okay, what's really important to me?
Speaker 1:That's number two.
Speaker 2:Number three is you have to take inventory of the skills you have right. And not the copy and paste of your job description on your resume. Like what have you done? Because, again, we all do more than our job description, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:And we are all in a society where do more with less right, that's just the reality, so take inventory of what do you like, what do you not like, what have been your responsibilities? Have you been on special projects? Like were you pulled into a different business unit and you're like, oh, that was actually really interesting. I think I might want to do that. So take the inventory and then start to go like I definitely don't like this, I don't want to do that, and like narrow that down to go okay, how do I amplify these skills that I have?
Speaker 2:And I can guarantee that 80% of the skills you have you don't recognize as skills. That is really so let's just, let's just, yeah, marinate on that for a second. Sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:So boiling it down.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That is a beautiful way to say it. So, like you just said, like take all the skills that you have, yeah, that you are proud of that. You stand on Right and really focus on skills of the shit I actually like doing and make some money out of it.
Speaker 3:What a great way to say it.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 3:Thank you, jay, that was awesome. Honestly, you had this light bulb go off in my head.
Speaker 1:Me too, I got excited. Do you know what I'd like to do?
Speaker 3:A round two, because we don't want to go too long on this, but a round two. We should record a session of her doing that with us.
Speaker 2:Yes, Wouldn't that be cool. Yeah, I was going to say I'll put my Curtis Raj's hat on.
Speaker 1:Well, we have another show we're looking at starting up that we'll talk to you about, maybe after.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally 100%. Yeah, I'm in.
Speaker 1:But anyways, okay. So now we've boiled it down, we've found our skills.
Speaker 2:We've, and the sword. Yeah, you're getting some clarity and hopefully some confidence Like man.
Speaker 3:I crushed that project.
Speaker 2:Or that manager in another department gave really great feedback when I helped with whatever, and it can be small.
Speaker 1:Okay, can I ask you a B question? A what question? A B question to that.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. So what happens when you?
Speaker 1:meet someone and they're delusional in their accomplishments.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a great question. Question how do you deal with that?
Speaker 2:how do I?
Speaker 3:deal with that? How do you pop someone's ego? This is more of a fun question so here's the question I need to clarify.
Speaker 2:Is it how do I deal with it, or how should it be dealt with in general?
Speaker 1:how do you deal with?
Speaker 2:it yeah, you so career strategist jen would be very much of like. Okay, like, tell me what you're working with and then I would again. I've been doing this for a long time, so I'd ask them questions to kind of like, poke some holes, bring it down. I think I don't have that very often, but I think I would literally be like that's not going to work.
Speaker 2:And the reason why it's not going to work is and again I'd be able to back it up based on how the entirety of the conversation went but really most people don't see their value. They don't, they don't see their value yeah. They don't. They don't know what they're good at, they don't know that again, like, what comes very naturally for us is all something different. So you assume, like if you're really great with tech, you would assume everybody is really great with tech.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And that's why I said right Like if you're like talking about what are we going to talk about? Some people would be okay. I need like everything ahead of time. I need to know like you can wing it with me if you said to me hey, we're at an event and the keynote didn't show up. Can you go on there? I can figure it out, but that doesn't mean everyone else can you know what?
Speaker 3:that's a really good point, and my wife actually reminds me of that often, because sometimes we'll be talking about things and I'll be like, no, this is like super easy, it's da, da, da, da, da. And she'll be like, yes, you, matt conrad, she does the whole wave of hands, I mean Matt Conrad understands this, but she's like most people don't, or whatever. Like you know, not everyone will, or whatever. Right, you like this Right, therefore, so it's usually a lack of confidence. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, like even, for example, um, I had the opportunity to go on um CTV morning live on women's day and talk about like pay gaps for women and how women can find careers they love, and all these things and after my husband was like like, I watched it and he's like you are so good, like you didn't stutter, you do whatever.
Speaker 2:He's like I'd be sweating and whatever, and I'm like really, and then it was like okay, jen, you tell this to people, like the stuff that comes naturally to all of us right that's the stuff we really want to amplify right but most people don't have the confidence and they don't sit with themselves long enough to figure out what those things are and then finding that team around you.
Speaker 1:If you're working independently, like you are now running your business, you're like what do I kind of suck at? Yeah, you know, that's a good and I'm I'm good at realizing that as well I'm like, oh, I'm not so good at that, so if you, can have self-awareness yeah, and again, I think it's a.
Speaker 2:It's a skill you need to hone right, but I think if you have self-awareness, I think you're unstoppable yeah, right because you're open to feedback you're kind of like yeah, I'm not really good at that, but I want to be, or you know what? I'm not good at it, I'm not going to try to be right. I'm not great at accounting like I. Just I, I don't. I'm not good at it.
Speaker 3:We've talked about that with other entrepreneurs and stuff in the past where it's like because we work in commercial insurance, and so the interesting thing is that we get to talk to entrepreneurs all day, every day, and you know, sometimes they start something and you know because they're good at something. But just because you're good at something doesn't mean you know how to run a business. Doesn't mean you're good at the books, doesn't? Mean you're good at HR Doesn't mean you're whatever right.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of the things like you know, if someone's like I can I know how to build a deck, I'm going to start a carpenter company, right, but how do you manage carpenters? How do you negotiate the best pricing, and that's it, I think, for entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:For sure, we are really good at what had us start to be an entrepreneur but then as you get going, and then all these other things are like hey, you've got a accounting, you've got people management. Potentially. All these other things are like holy shit, I'm I'm not good at that For me. I'm not good at asking for help per se, but I also know that I don't know what. I don't know.
Speaker 3:And if it's?
Speaker 2:something that can be detrimental to the business. And now I have a team. I have to go get that help because I'm not only responsible for my salary, I'm responsible for the salary of others.
Speaker 3:That's right. Yeah, how many people are working for you now?
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, how many people are working for you now? I have technically four, so I have one on maternity leave.
Speaker 2:She was my first hire came out of a hospitality background. Never in a million years thought of recruitment and crushed it I have. So I have two recruiters One's on maternity leave, the other is basically holding up the ship while she's off. And then I have someone who's doing all of my digital management, like all my social media. We just launched a career course so that people can be taught how to do their resume cover letter and leverage LinkedIn, so that just went out into the world.
Speaker 2:And then I have a contract business development person who's out trying to like help fill the funnel because I guess, okay, right, you need someone that, while you guys are working with the people, you would need someone out there finding more right, and I'm at a point in my career where I love recruitment, but I want to be like coming up with the solutions to your problems and helping you implement them. When it comes to your talent, versus.
Speaker 2:Okay, I got to go to this event and then I got to follow up with you and I got to meet with you, so you'll give me business and then try to develop and grow and lead a team so they can be, successful Again that those were not my buckets my bucket was like I'm going to hire you a great person and you're going to love the work that we've done not all the other components that I'm now responsible for and I'm like, I'm not really good at some of this stuff yeah, but it's smart how you're pulling a good team around you to figure all that stuff and nobody has a background in recruitment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nobody has a background and it's hard to let go and let somebody else do things too, man, isn't it Like I'm so ask. Matt, Like I'm terrible at sometimes. I'm like, oh no, no, I'll do the video, man, or? Whatever, and we're like that back and forth all the time.
Speaker 2:It is. I would say again, like you're, again, I'm responsible for four people's salaries.
Speaker 2:I'm responsible for keeping the lights on Then again. Then I contribute to my family. So there's all. But the hardest part has been letting go of stuff that cause it's like, oh, I'll hire you, but then I'm still going to do all the things. Well, what's the point of that Like giving up that and then delegating also at times, I think for me anyway, again, I never had a team until now delegating or handing that stuff off as in like, like, am I doing that? And I'm like it's like, am I gonna be seen as lazy because I don't want to do the work? Right?
Speaker 2:and so there's like, like there's such a mind, fuck with it right, yeah.
Speaker 1:So so before I get into our fun interview questions okay uh, a couple things. So you go ahead. You got something. Well, put up your finger, we're keeping going aren't we well?
Speaker 3:you know, if someone was like, hey, I'm looking yeah like do they pay you or do you get paid by the person who hires them? Those are things that people might want to know If I was like I would love to meet with Jen. I don't know if I have $1,000 to pay her to find me a job. Explain that a little bit, Okay.
Speaker 2:So there's two differences to that. So one on the recruitment side, where the organization comes to us and says go hire us a salesperson, I'm an admin person, whatever they're in person, whatever they're paying us the fee to go and find that person. So if I come to you on LinkedIn, I'm like. I got a great opportunity for you. You're not paying me to put you through that process Okay so that's separate.
Speaker 2:When you get to the career strategy piece, that is, you making the investment, one of the things that we have done um, and I'm super proud about it, I think, of all the things we've done, this is my most favorite thing is we created basically a digital program that will allow you to basically go through it and everything I do with you. If we worked on one-on-one in a self-paced, directed kind of learning management system.
Speaker 2:you get videos, templates, like we do the inventory. We walk you through all that so you can teach yourself with me still holding the hand at a fraction of the price because I've run out of bandwidth in terms of the people that I can work with and the one thing that I get super pumped up, so you just launched this. We launched it Monday.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, Literally just launched Just Monday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we launched it Monday, thank you. So it's called Career Accelerator and it walks you through again. How do you take inventory? How do you figure it? What are you good at what at? How do you write your resume? Cause resumes suck right. 95% of resumes are crap, cover letters are not good and people aren't maximizing.
Speaker 3:LinkedIn, so we're teaching it. Do you think cover letters are still good, or no, I think it depends on the position.
Speaker 2:So if I'm looking, at like an admin role, a sales role, you know something, not entry level. But if I'm looking at something where I have a volume of candidates to go through, I'm not reading your cover letter.
Speaker 3:I don't read cover letters.
Speaker 2:Right and I don't love them because I think you have to like. If your resume gives me enough, that makes me want to call you. The conversation is going to tell me more than a cover letter can.
Speaker 3:I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2:But we, the hiring process is broken on both the employer side and the candidate side and from and the career seeker side. So from that perspective it's like, well, we always did cover letters right we always did them, so we're going to still do them they do have a place if you are going into more of a mid to level manager and above, or a specialized position.
Speaker 2:I do think that they hold a tremendous amount of value for sure um, but personally, like if I was making predictions like this is my gary v moment, like in 10 years.
Speaker 1:I love gary v, so do I love him.
Speaker 3:See, you told you're wrong.
Speaker 2:Oh, he doesn't like him. I don't say different, different episode, different episode um, but if I was making like my bold ass 10-year prediction is that we will only apply for jobs through linkedin um, through recruiters, and it will be that your linkedin profile is your virtual resume and you won't necessarily need the other one.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's 10 years away, maybe longer. That is my prediction Because, again, like my, I'm going to share this one. Like my son in grade I'm going to say nine, so he would have been 14, came home and he's like oh, like, they gave us a resume template at school and I was like oh, can I see it?
Speaker 2:And I was like what in the sweet Christmas is this? I'm like we're not using this. And he's like what do you mean? I'm like, buddy, this is not a good resume template. And they're telling you like this is a class where they're teaching you. I'm like let me message the teacher and see if I can come in and do it.
Speaker 2:He's like no, you're not coming in to talk about it, but forever then, fast forward to 10 years or whatever, like the resume templates I see now, or the resume store that people are sending man like they're garbage and they're not highlighting who you are and what, and that's why I can't talk to everybody, but when I do, I'm like I you're you would be good at this. You need to go here like I can.
Speaker 2:That's like in the superpower inside of that yeah which is what we teach in the course is how do you elevate all of that about you and then go out there and crush it and you'll have confidence and clarity. And then you interview well, and then you negotiate. The higher end of the salary range Might not be $63,000, like the pastor, but guaranteed it's going to be over 10, 100%.
Speaker 1:Wow, I like it.
Speaker 3:You had something?
Speaker 1:No, not really, I was going to jump into our questions here.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, sure, but first had something.
Speaker 1:I no, not really. I was going to jump into our questions here, oh okay, but you know, first I just want to say again warrenton, group check, check jennifer warrenton out on linkedin. We'll say this again and, uh, all of our following stuff will be in the episode description. But for fun here, jennifer, this was just um you know, the only person that calls me jennifer oh, I'll call you jennifer, now one that's okay, though like yeah, whatever you prefer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm easy. Okay. So these are 10 questions here, okay, and you just answer them however you want. You tell me if it's a garbage interview question. Now, this is an interview question that you ask the interviewee person, right?
Speaker 2:Okay, so you're like I'm going to an interview, you're my interviewer and you're going to ask me a question.
Speaker 3:That's right, and I'm saying hey, you shouldn't ask that I'm the interviewer. You're the interviewer. Okay, I'm telling you if this question is crap, so you're going to say if it's good or garbage, okay.
Speaker 2:And do you want context behind it, or just good, or?
Speaker 1:garbage yeah. Context. Take your time yeah, oh, geez, and I'll pass these back and forth.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, because I want to know. So you want to know, what level are you looking for? You want?
Speaker 2:salary expectations.
Speaker 3:What's your ballpark?
Speaker 2:Right and I always say what are your salary requirements?
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Keeping in mind. Now, this is a coaching moment, but I would say like, keep in mind where you are currently and give me a range of about 10K, because we're all trying to go.
Speaker 3:I would argue that it's not worth leaving a job unless it's over 10K I agree. 10k or higher, I agree. So.
Speaker 2:I would just say like what are your Unless?
Speaker 3:you hate the job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's a toxic environment and all the things. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But if you like your job and you're just trying to see if you can upgrade. It's not worth going to learn something new at a new company for less than 10K.
Speaker 2:And if you're interviewing me but I came through your HR department, or a recruiter like myself was pay leasing there? I should already have the answer to that question so that you don't have to ask it, because, again, when we talk about money, people get weird, right?
Speaker 3:Don't tell them.
Speaker 2:How much you make, don't share how much you paid for this Never show your salary. That's crap in 2024.
Speaker 3:Love it. Love that answer. Yeah, all right. So we got a little bit of chicken scratch on this one. But so why are you looking to leave your current job, or why did you leave your last job?
Speaker 2:So I think it's a good question. I think we need some context around it. The advice I would like, or the context I would place around that question, is, if you are the person that has to answer that question, never speak negative about your current or former employer. Ever Hard stop. Everybody knows somebody. Everybody can find that information. So I want context as to why did you leave. If it was lacking growth opportunity, or if it's a really bad culture and you had a crappy manager, you can just say the organization was not really aligned to my values.
Speaker 3:That's the nice way of saying it sucked.
Speaker 2:But if you come in and you tell me it sucked and you give me five stories. You've shot yourself in in the foot, you're out, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1:You're done okay. Good question or bad? How did you choose your previous field of work or study?
Speaker 2:I wouldn't ask it at all.
Speaker 3:No, it's irrelevant, garbage have you ever been arrested? Oh yeah, you can't ask that in an interview you're not allowed to ask anything around um background checks show like the background checks will show it, hopefully.
Speaker 2:But again, if you've been charged with something and then not found criminally guilty, it doesn't show up yeah, that's, true, so there's something different there, but you can't ask that in an interview. You can't ask women if they are looking to have a family, if like.
Speaker 3:You're not allowed to ask, and never politics.
Speaker 2:Like ever. I don't think anyone should talk politics unless you're in the political space, but that's for a different episode I'm sure you know what funny.
Speaker 3:You say that I actually I I promoted somebody who worked for me. I promoted them while like I, they were openly known like told everyone that they were pregnant. Okay, and I got flack for that from who other employees?
Speaker 1:because they were like well, she was internal right. Disclaimer is not your current employer, not in current. Okay, not in current employer, not in current employer.
Speaker 3:But I got a little flack because they were like you know, like we know, that they're not going to be here for a year and you're giving them this job, and I was but it was a promotion internal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, that's fine.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah I think they were also the best person for the job. Yeah, and I think we need to get back to that. It's also illegal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, right, because it's a discrimination thing.
Speaker 3:Exactly and right wrong or indifferent.
Speaker 2:that's the world we live in, everything is seen as discriminatory or whatever like that whole bucket of things. But yeah, you can't ask that in an interview.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jen Warrington. Yes, how do you deal with pressure or stressful situations?
Speaker 2:Yes, that's a great question.
Speaker 1:Okay, I want you to answer it for me.
Speaker 2:How I would answer it.
Speaker 1:He's wondering how do you answer it.
Speaker 2:So how do you? What was the question? Again, how do?
Speaker 1:you deal with pressure, stressful situations? I want you to answer it first, and then tell me why it's a good question. Answer it for yourself, though. What's your answer?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I for me, in a current day situation, how do I deal with pressure or stress? I would, um, I would seek out my mentor and like ask for guidance and direction. Um, I probably try to just again, I try to sit with myself so that I don't react and like act like a fool and say something I'm going to regret because, that's happened inside of that.
Speaker 2:But I think, when it's being asked as an interview question, especially in a context of a professional setting, I want to know, like are you someone that you know you're going to fly off the handle and freak out? Do do you need a moment? Because if you need a moment to like retreat to yourself, you don't need two people standing at your cubicle or your desk or at the door saying like what's wrong?
Speaker 2:like how do we help, like I want to understand so that I can support you the best way that, when you're handling those things right but people don't articulate that very well as an answer it's a hard question. Yeah, I deal with pressure or stress. Everything's fine, like I just work through it. Like, no, like. Let's be honest, right. Like the authenticity again. Like don't drop F bombs on an interview but, like, the authenticity is extreme.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm doing wrong.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's the F bombs.
Speaker 1:What if? But?
Speaker 3:what, what?
Speaker 2:But there are a lot of people that are super laid back and like the things that would bother you wouldn't bother them. But I think what a potential employer is trying to understand is work is crazy Like there's a lot of stressful situations, a lot of changes that can happen. Are you going to be able to communicate effectively? Are you going to be able to come up with potential solutions and problem solve? Do you have a critical thinking skill? Again, all transferables.
Speaker 1:Or are you going to be a volatile head case to the team? Right, you know, and that's not going to come out in an interview.
Speaker 2:So that's kind of a transparency question. Yeah, yeah, like the transferable skill is so important, but again, like I think you would have to really coach someone through how to answer that and identify, like if you're, because if you say, oh, I'm a strong communicator, I'm going to communicate, and then you can't pull a sentence together, or your tone and delivery is crap that's going to come out in an interview, and then you're going to again shoot yourself in the foot.
Speaker 3:Cool, why should I hire you?
Speaker 2:Stupid question.
Speaker 1:It's a stupid question. Please stop asking it right now. No, yeah, it's not a good question.
Speaker 2:What was it? It was good or garbage, right, that's a garbage one, that's a garbage Awesome yeah.
Speaker 1:Cool, I don't have answers here, I'm just going to.
Speaker 2:I just went down good interview questions. Yeah, More or less. It's totally fine. Just don't do it on your resume please.
Speaker 1:Seriously, um, what was that? Oh, what is your biggest strength? Slash weakness. We'll put that in there too, right yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, again, it's garbage. It's an outdated question. Everyone's going to tell you what their strengths are, to what they think they are. It doesn't mean that it is their strength. And then, when it comes to the weaknesses, you're going to be like, oh, I'm a perfectionist. Or oh, you know, I really beat myself up. If I don't, I fall asleep in meetings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just not authentic.
Speaker 2:And you know, for me again, people still ask this question. The interviewer shouldn't ask it Like let's get current, let's ask some better questions. I would say that you know your weakness should be tied to something that you can learn or improve on in your role, so like a software right. Like, if you're not good at Excel. Say that, Don't say that. You know I get really pissed off and like slam the door Like don't do that. Don't say you're a perfectionist, because not everybody is, and that's usually the standard answer.
Speaker 3:Money. This is, I care, too much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's a good one too.
Speaker 3:So garbage question.
Speaker 2:If you're listening and you hire people, don't ask that question anymore.
Speaker 3:What did you do in the last year to improve your knowledge? Great question.
Speaker 2:I think we want to know that people are taking their own personal development seriously. I think that we live in a world now where that is readily available, whether that's podcasts or the internet, or they've got mentorship, usually organizations now like the larger organizations. They provide those opportunities for personal and professional development and I want to know that you care enough about yourself that you'll invest in yourself.
Speaker 1:That's fair. Yeah, and one more, jen Warrington, plug, you have a podcast.
Speaker 2:I do have a podcast. I'm going to have to bring you guys on and we'll hang out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'd be awesome. So tell me a little bit about that real quick before we go to the next question. So what's that about?
Speaker 2:So it's the Career Fuel podcast, and essentially what I'm doing is there are episodes where I'm giving you, like, the insights through the brain of a recruiter, and then I'm either talking to individuals who have really cool career stories or individuals that I've worked with and I've coached them through the process to where they've landed from a perspective.
Speaker 1:Do you have a pastor on the show or do you have him on there? He's coming on. We're recording soon. There you go, man. Take me when that one's on.
Speaker 2:We're recording that one, but I had like so the very first person that we had on from a perspective of the coolest story. Her name is Jen Harper. She is the founder of Cheekbone Beauty.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And she spoke at. She spoke at the Wonder Woman event here in June and I didn't know who she was, I knew nothing about skincare, makeup, any of the things, and Kate on my team was with me and she's like, oh my God, like you have to, and I was like, okay, and anyway, her story was incredible and I left that event. I went to Sephora and bought out everything that cheekbone booty that they had there and then I like slid into the DMs on Instagram and was like your talk was really inspiring. Like I had no idea. But wow, and would you be a guest on my podcast? And she said yes, but, she was a.
Speaker 2:she was a an account manager, like she was in sales selling fish wow, okay, yeah, that's different. So selling fish to restaurants and like pubs and large organizations like right so commercial account manager for fish sales and now she has like the. It's a female founded indigenous brand around sustainability and clean product and she's in sephora and jc penny and she's like that's dope.
Speaker 3:You know what though? Yeah, I think you can, if you can sell something and if you can sell. You can sell.
Speaker 2:But it was so important to go like okay, you're doing this, how did you get to?
Speaker 3:that, but that's the thing. If you can sell, you can sell, but then obviously this is something that's really authentic to her.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:And it's kind of like I think Gary Vee says it all the time.
Speaker 2:Gary Vee, remember him. Yeah, I remember him. I love that guy.
Speaker 3:He says it all the time where he says like you know, just do something authentic. And eventually people will start to see it and they'll buy in because they see how authentic it is. A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:And she was. You know, hers was literally. She said she woke up in the middle of the night and had a dream about seeing all of these indigenous little girls covered in makeup, got out her laptop and started. Imagine. Imagine the amount of people that said she was crazy don't do it. Stick with your job all of the things, and then she was on Dragon's Den. Love that show.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I want Arlene on this show.
Speaker 2:She's the best. Okay, if Arlene comes on, I'm going to be like the get the water for her.
Speaker 1:If we can get Arlene, we'll invite you to come hang out with us, can you?
Speaker 2:promise, just come hang out Her and Jim Jim's awesome, but like there's something, something about Arlene that.
Speaker 3:I always just, I always thought she was the best I know.
Speaker 1:Rob left for America, but I liked Rob yeah.
Speaker 3:Robert Herjavec yes we'll take him too. We'll take him too, all the time, mr Wonderful.
Speaker 1:Alright, he's awesome, yeah okay, I think I know your answer on this question why do you, why do you want to work here?
Speaker 2:what do you think? The answer is Because.
Speaker 1:I need a fucking job. Yeah, yeah, but do you think it's a good question or a garbage question? Oh, I think it's a bad question. Yeah, it's a bad question, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's the same thing. When you look at a resume. I'm like don't put an objective statement on your resume. The objective of submitting a resume is to get the job right. So yeah, don't ask that Like.
Speaker 1:Oh, matt doesn't see these questions, he's laughing at this one.
Speaker 3:I'm laughing at this question, so you know what I'm going to say beforehand that this question could be a good question, depending on where you're applying.
Speaker 2:I think it's a good question.
Speaker 3:I think it's a good question. Do you believe in ghosts?
Speaker 2:Okay, so do you know what literally just popped into my head right now? Have you guys seen on social media? It's the Ellen DeGeneres show and she's talking to Kevin Hart and she was like what do you think of ghost hunters? And he's like what? Like what are we talking about right now? And it goes in this whole thing. He's like that's like actually a thing. That's what popped into my mind.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I think you'd only ask that if you. You're applying to be a ghost hunter, yeah, or if you're working somewhere like haunted in Bedford called Resto, used to be the seller. They're amazing, like best staff, like everything. I love Resto and it's haunted. Yeah yeah, and like super haunted. And so when they actually interview people they will show them the pictures from when, like the actual ghost hunters from Creepy Canada came on and shit like can prove it.
Speaker 2:And they're like if you are afraid of ghosts, you probably can't work here. So great question for them to ask, but not one that I would be suggesting you answer.
Speaker 1:That's a great one though, jen. Do you believe in ghosts? I do you do? A hundred percent Cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, awesome. I go to Resto and I'm like, hey, is she here? And the light starts swinging.
Speaker 1:We asked that question to Tim Houston as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think we have a really rich history of that. I think, you need a ghost hunter on here next.
Speaker 3:We already had a ghost hunter. We did a normal investigation at the.
Speaker 1:Halifax Club who. We went and did like a ghost hunt with the paranormal investigator. They stuck me. Who was the paranormal person?
Speaker 3:It was two of them soul seekers, amy and Tonya, amy and Tonya yeah, yeah, and they stuck me blindfolded.
Speaker 2:You said, yeah, yeah, I don't know that I would do that I'm a not ghost believer. Oh my gosh. And he doesn't like Gary V. Like you're out, I'm just a realist.
Speaker 1:But uh, pragmatic, I guess. Okay, uh, but anyways no, but we went on the ghost hunt and then I we had these little like kind scan they have like the infrared and see all the shit. So, anyways, I'm scanning it and then I see a human figure like standing directly in front of me and I started like sweating right, and I'm like what?
Speaker 3:the fuck, but you know it can't hurt you. He was a believer for like 10 seconds.
Speaker 1:But then I realized it was like my own reflection and I waved, it wasn't, it was Go to Resto.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you, oh man, yeah.
Speaker 1:Anyways, so it was crazy, but okay, our last question. We asked this to everybody.
Speaker 2:And am I going to be allowed to ask questions Because I've got a few. But yeah, go ahead. No, go ahead. What's your question?
Speaker 1:This is a lovely question. We're going to leave that to the very end. You do your question, okay.
Speaker 2:So the questions I so if you could have done any career in your entire life what would it have been?
Speaker 3:Oh wow, Are you asking me?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I want you to go first.
Speaker 3:Any career in my entire life, what would it?
Speaker 2:be. Yeah, remember the question like if money and resources were not an issue, what would you be doing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a tough one because I think I put that behind me. But what was it back then? It was politician.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 3:I ran four years ago. And since I was 14 years old, I wanted to run politics Really Okay. Yeah, I've always been really community oriented, okay, and I feel that I'm a pretty. I always tell people I'm not a good salesperson, but I'm a really good networker.
Speaker 2:Okay. Do you feel like you could impact change in the community.
Speaker 3:Heavily, and I sit on lots of boards now.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:I'm the vice chair of one board. I am the chair of a trust now, and there's a third one that I just stepped away from.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I'm on a couple different boards.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:And so I try to do that impact as much as I can. That's amazing, but I just thought maybe I could get paid for it, so yeah, but, I didn't win, obviously. Four years ago I lost by 2%.
Speaker 2:Well, let's do it again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know about that. It sucks.
Speaker 2:I think it'd be a tough career to be in today.
Speaker 3:You're not wrong there.
Speaker 3:That being, you know 50% of the people hate you and stuff like that, yeah, but uh, for me, I think what changed was not winning. Uh does impact it, whether because you don't want to be that guy who does it all the time, like it constantly attempts it, um, and but it's, you know, so it's, it's tough, yeah, and it's tough like because I'm very politically like, like scientifically strategizing all very politically okay, um and uh, to not win, kind of like, oh man, maybe I'm not as good as I thought I was you are as good as you think you are.
Speaker 2:You're probably better, but that can be intimidating to others whether they're in the party or they're out or in like, and that's jobs or whatever. That's not just politics because I don't want to like trash on that, because I don't know enough about it to really even have an opinion, but you are good enough and it could have just been that again somewhere. Someone it's mostly that people are intimidated by us, especially in positions like that yeah, it's so there's a part.
Speaker 3:I had a long chat with my my cousin, uh, my cousin, who's like one of my better friends, right he uh, and he kind of said, like I was talking to him about it, whether I was humming and hawing and whether I did it again and, honestly, like his words haunt me a little bit where he's like you know what man. They had their chance.
Speaker 2:They did have their chance.
Speaker 3:And I'm kind of like yeah, you know what, Maybe, maybe they did. And maybe the community did and they had a chance to have me for a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And maybe they lost it.
Speaker 2:And maybe they did, and maybe it's ready for you around a corner in a different season, or maybe you should just get back into it.
Speaker 1:No, stop your moping, I'm not moping.
Speaker 2:That was four years ago, right? So maybe it's just a different season.
Speaker 1:He's going to do it.
Speaker 2:He's going to do it again. 100% Okay. And what about you over here, big guy?
Speaker 1:For me. I think I mean this is I'm a kid, I wanted to do radio.
Speaker 2:Okay, you have a radio voice and I wanted to get into rap. Okay, I don't know, about that.
Speaker 3:No, no, he was good, really, seriously that might be a harder sell.
Speaker 2:No, I'm telling you, he was good.
Speaker 1:And I've always just been obsessed with the idea of production and entertainment.
Speaker 2:Okay, who's the best rapper to ever live?
Speaker 1:Living or dead. Me right now, Kendrick Lamar, probably one of my number one. Okay, I think he's. I mean, I love Jay-Z. I'm afraid to call out some rappers these days because I just don't want to get. They might be in trouble by the time this happens.
Speaker 3:After Diddy gets busted?
Speaker 1:They probably are yeah, so but I don't know, I just yeah, so I don't know.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of things I want to do. I thought you were a biggie guy. I thought that was your ride or die. I love.
Speaker 1:Troy's PIG, but I think Kendrick Lamar is.
Speaker 2:I don't know enough of his stuff. I'd have to ask myself Represents?
Speaker 1:the past, present and future for hip-hop, and that's a really unique superpower as a rapper For me, lyrically, it's Tupac and Eminem. Oh, I, nothing wrong with it either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, so you were going to be either on radio or a rapper. Yeah, I'm trying to do the right thing now. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I mean you know, and I mean I've done, I've tried directing plays and I think I want to continue to try to get in directing and producing and I'm going to keep working towards it or maybe like some sort of let's do them, let's turn them into money-making ideas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just got to try to make money at it, so my girlfriend, doesn't leave me right. She won't leave you. She hasn't left yet. I mean, I don't know how long, but usually we're in it for the long haul for the most part. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so we'll get there, okay.
Speaker 3:So what's our last question?
Speaker 2:I got to ask you now this one question, because what did young Jennifer, or present-day Jennifer, what's the dream job that got away? Okay, so they're so similar that it's going to be. No, that's a joke. I was either going to be a criminal defense lawyer or criminal prosecutor.
Speaker 3:I wanted to be a lawyer. Okay, nice.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Or a backup dancer for Janet Jackson, oh my.
Speaker 1:God, those are very different. Backup dancer for Janet Jackson, can you? See the similarities no, that's awesome um yeah, I, I always again.
Speaker 2:Um, my husband probably, and my sister would say, like I never lose an argument, but I don't come to the table unless I can win right that argument. So if I do, I'm prepared and I'm ready to go, and so there I think I would have made an impact from a law perspective okay um, and then I don't really know. I mean, I don't have a dance background can we get some dance moves?
Speaker 3:no, I have none.
Speaker 1:I have none when you come back. Uh, I'm gonna ask you, we're gonna have a biggie versus tupac argument. I think, okay, on the biggie side, on the big, I think he's great.
Speaker 2:I just, I feel like tupac was much more diverse, like he wrote poetry and like he like all of those things like the rose that grew throughrew Through Concrete was a book of poetry. Yes, it was. Yeah, yeah, I had that. I don't have it now. Yeah, I did a high school project on that. Did you yeah?
Speaker 1:When were you in high school 20.
Speaker 2:Oh Jesus 2000.
Speaker 1:2000?.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like 93. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have another gentleman coming up next year.
Speaker 1:So the last question is what's one thing you think more people?
Speaker 2:Do I need to read the question? I think I wrote this drunk.
Speaker 1:What's one more thing you could do that could make the world a better place? What's one thing you could do, or that everybody could do, to make the world a better?
Speaker 3:place. Yeah, you is in the general.
Speaker 2:I really meant that question. This is the general Okay, so I'm just going to take a piece of paper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't, don't even read that.
Speaker 2:It's. I wrote it wrong. What's one?
Speaker 3:thing you think more people could do to make the world a better place, so this is not an interview question. No, this is just for general. This is just Jen.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I just think people need to give themselves grace and I think that you know there's just so much happening in our world that is absolutely batshit crazy. And again, I don't know enough of the things to have opinions on them, because I choose to not allow the negativity in because I feel like it's a lot. But I think we're too impatient, we move too quickly, we expect too much from others without doing it ourselves sometimes or giving it of ourselves. So I think if you can be kind and give yourself grace, like kind to yourself, you'll be kind to others and, I think, just like you know, be really grateful for the fact that, like you're here like I know it's not great, and I know that there's again a million problems that need to be solved.
Speaker 2:You do and you know, the one thing I have found, you know, as I've gone through this evolution and this journey over the last four years, is that at the end of the day, if, like your family is, you know, proud of you and what you're doing, they might not agree with it, but again they'll get to a point where they're like okay, like yeah, you, and if you have your family and you have your health, like why are you being angry about all the things that we're angry about?
Speaker 2:And if you can't solve the problems, like just try to like contribute some part to the solution.
Speaker 3:Kindness and grace. I love that Be the change in the world.
Speaker 1:So cheers on that.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Jennifer, it was a pleasure meeting you. I hope we do this again in the new year.
Speaker 2:Thank you, michael, it was a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 3:Cheers.
