Being Good at 'X' Doesn't Mean You'll Be Good At 'Y'.

Today, I discuss how I was forced into a job I wasn't ready for. Knowing I wasn't ready for the role and didn't have the right skill set didn't stop my boss from pushing me into the role. 

Also, how the finding of a job is all about fit. The skill set you have needs to match the one job requires. Too often companies equate success in one job with success in another, which doesn't always line up. 

The advice… it's all about money....or leadership...or fit...what to focus on when looking at a new job/career. Money is the obvious answer, but just like we see in sports, it is often the leading cause of the wrong decision. 

Sponsor I Wish I Had: 
Alani Energy Drinks  
@alani_nutrition  

Just the Tip: 
Sports Coat v Blazer v Suit Jacket 

Whisper In: 
Gents Lounge  
@gentslounge  

Check out this related video: https://youtu.be/aiRh72aTPeg?si=5X1eA…

 Check out the Story. Lesson. Advice. Podcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/919333/14145193 

Music by purple-planet.com music by Wondershare Filmora 12 SIDMEDIA.net 

@saturdayisdadurdaymedia on IG @Saturdayisdadurdaymedia on YouTube

Transcript

everybody that has entered a job being woefully unqualified, please raise your hand now. This is me raising my hand now.
Welcome everyone to another episode of The Story lesson advice podcast. Part of the Saturday is Saturday Media Network. I have multiple podcasts coming, multiple videos, blogs, even books all in due time. If you'd like to learn more about that, you can check out my website at si de media.net. All right now I said, for everybody that has woefully unqualified for some job in their life, please raise your hand, and I raised my hand. And if I could, I would raise both. So I'm raising both of my hands right now. The reason that I bring this up, the story of this was out of college, I did what most people did, I went and found the first job that would hire me. And I worked for a larger company. And eventually I was decent enough that I was asked to interview for a different kind of position and move to Chicago. So I did that interviewed for an inside sales position that was 100% Commission. I was not a salesperson, by default. But it was an opportunity to live in Chicago, and I love the bowls. And I love Chicago. And it was great. And I was young and single. So why not? Did that did a good job there. Our company opened up another office in Dallas. And they asked me in about five or six other people to move to Dallas, in our current roles as inside salespeople and help open up that office. So we had experience with our company and our industry, kind of pioneering this new type of Office format for our company. So did that again, young and single, always wanted to live somewhere where you didn't have to shovel snow. So moved. That was great, continue to do a good job. And then at some point, within the first year or so me living in Dallas, I was asked by our company, hey, do you think you'd want to be a manager, a sales manager? You're a good salesperson? And I said, you know, thanks. But no, thanks. Like right now, I'm not really ready to do that. I don't think I would be doing myself or our company. A good job if I said yes, because I don't really think I'm qualified for the role yet. So I said, Okay, no problem. So a training role opened up and asked if I'd be interested in being a trainer. So I did that for about a year really liked it. And that was much more in my skill set. Because I liked the idea of communicating with people. And you know, in work settings, not necessarily in home, but in work settings, I am patient, and I can take time and kind of go over things. So I have no problem with that. So I really enjoyed the role travelled a little bit, it was super fun. And about eight months into the role, I was asked again, by your company, hey, we want you to be a sales manager. And I said thanks. But I still have work to do in this role. And this is a really good match for for the kind of way that I like to work and the type of work I like to do. So I'm really happy here. So a couple months more went by, and I was asked a third time and said like, hey, you need to take this because if you don't, you're probably not going to get asked to move up again. And the the office that I was working at in Dallas, was a satellite office of our company, which was located back in Wisconsin, and I had no intention to go back to the cold in Wisconsin. So all roads kind of led back there. And if I wasn't going to be willing to take promotions in the satellite office, then kind of where I was at was where I was going to be where I was stuck. And I should have said, No, I'm good. But I was young didn't know what to do. And I said okay, sure. So I took the role of a sales manager. And over the course of a year and a half, I did really not a great job at all. And I look back on that. And I wonder why and my skill set totally not in line at the time with what was needed to be an effective sales manager. As far as accountability and follow up with people and understanding how to manage a team and manage 12 to 15 personalities or more. Looking back on that it was a huge mistake for my career. Okay, now it's time for this week's sponsor I wish I had and for the YouTube audience. You can see as I'm holding up this case of Alazani energy drinks. Now I discovered a Lani through my wife she gets full credit looking for a good pick me up in the afternoon or maybe something on a Saturday or Sunday when I had like an energy drink, but I don't want it to be pure gasoline. I don't want it to taste just ridiculous. And I don't want it to give me the jitters and creeped me out 10 minutes after taking it. So, lo and behold might be dutiful wife, Beth stumbled upon a Lani energy drinks and this vape flavor. In particular, the cherry slosh has been our absolute go to for over a year now, and my wife takes one to work with her every day. I have one most days when I'm working at home or on the weekends. But I absolutely love it. Because number one it is by far the best tasting energy drink I've ever had by leaps and bounds like this tastes like a very, very good cocktail without the alcohol or just a really good flavorful drink so that in and of itself, it's enjoyable to drink. And the second thing I really like about it is it gives you a good pop of sustained energy. But for me, one of the things I struggled with over time with different energy drinks was sometimes you get those words, they just give you a burst of energy, a huge pop of energy, and then it's gone. And you're left just with a huge crash and a headache and you just kind of just run out of gas. So I really like this because it takes its time to kick in in an appropriate way. And then it also doesn't just leave you hanging at the end of the day just completely crashed and destroyed and just strung out. So I highly recommend that if you are in the market for an energy drink, you're looking for something I would go check this out. We usually get ours from from the grocery store or target or Kroger Albertsons wherever you shop so it's readily available a Lonnie energy drink this is the cherry slush flavor. They also have a bunch of other flavors, but I would give them a shot you will not be disappointed when you need a nice energy drink a nice little boost a nice little pick me up in the afternoon, a Lani energy drinks this week's sponsor I wish I had.
Alright, so when I think about the story of me, starting at a company working just a customer service job moving into a sales role, which really wasn't kind of where I like to be. But I did it because it was an opportunity to earn money and move. And then finally settling into a trainer role, which I really liked. Because I was working with our team. I was training them new hires, as well as existing employees for continuous education, keeping people up to date. And I really liked that collaborative process and that working together, and then I was kind of pressured slash ask slash, if you do don't do this, you're probably not gonna get a promotion ever again, to move into a sales manager role, which I did not like at all. And I think one of the reasons that I didn't like it, is because I didn't feel like I had a voice with our team. And I don't think I had a voice because I don't think I knew how to make my voice loud enough to be heard in the right way. So I was kind of just going with the flow, even though there was a lot of stuff I didn't agree with. But the lesson here in this is, it was blatantly obvious to me after the fact not so much when I was in it, because I didn't know any better. But that just because you are good at one particular job in a company does not mean that you should be promoted to the next level in that linear path. So if you are a good salesperson, it does not mean you should be a sales manager, those are two completely different skill sets. Now you can have overlap. And good salespeople can be a good sales manager. But typically you don't, you don't see that where you do see that as a linear career path is something like what my other profession that I did for years, which was cooking professionally. So you would get promoted from cooking breakfast, to being able to cook lunch to being able to go to dinner and work on the salad station and the dessert station. And then you'd eventually get to be the fry cook. And then you'd eventually get to be the broiler Cook, and then eventually the saute cook which is sort of the lead cook in the kitchen. That was more of a linear path. And then eventually you could become a sous chef. And then that's where you see a breakdown right there is because you're good at cooking. When you go up to a sous chef or a chef level. Now you're managing people. And that's a different skill set that most cooks don't have a different skill set that most salespeople don't have. And that's where I stumbled is I didn't really know what I was doing. I didn't know how to organize a team, I didn't know how to run a team efficiently. I didn't know how to communicate difficult feedback one on one and still move people forward. It was just a real struggle for me. And like I said before, I realized I didn't I didn't have I didn't feel like I had a voice because I didn't know how to make my voice loud enough to be heard. So there were a lot of things that looking back, like objectively, very poor decisions were made as an office to try to be strategic or trying to realign teams or try to go forward on a certain initiative or whatever, like, hey, that's business, right? You got to you got to try stuff. Some of it works. Some of it doesn't. So you know, I'm not holding a grudge on that. But things that I really objected to, I knew were not going to work I just I even things that impacted my team directly. And I guess I did speak up but not in the way that I should have. And that was really tough. And at the end of that kind of tenure. I had very very mediocre result. It's just sort of blocked, I also did not have a very strong team ever, I really didn't even have a strong like a player on my team. So that was kind of difficult. But what ended up happening was, there was an opportunity for me to take on a recruiting slash training slash hiring role. So I went back into that role. And that was, again, a great fit, because I was really utilizing the skills that I like, all of a sudden, I was doing some public speaking at events, I was recruiting at events, I was hiring and interviewing people, I was training those people, I was getting them up to speed and then passing them off to the different sales managers and their teams. And that was a much better alignment for my skill set. And the way I like to work and, and all the different things I like to do over the course of the day, and it's easy for me to sit here and say, like, Yeah, I'm gonna work on what I like, and only do the tasks that I like, I'm not suggesting that. But the big lesson here, the big takeaway here for me, was that just because you're good at one thing doesn't mean that you should automatically be promoted to the next level. And I think where we missed that, and I talked about this on a previous episode, where I talked about following my passion of cooking versus not doing that, and kind of where the pitfalls are for people is, oftentimes, we fail to recognize what we like about the current job that we're in, what are the things that we like, and then let's take those things, and let's go to try to find somewhere else that has some other job that has those, those same skill sets those same working ways or some overlap. So you are still kind of using the best versions of yourself into that role. So for the training aspect of it, what I really liked about that was the collaborating with people, the working together, kind of the planning, there was more project oriented, where, you know, I had a group of 10 people that I was going to train for four weeks, so I could lay everything out, I could schedule everything plan, everything, kind of knew what I was going to do. The days look different every day, because I was training different things. We were doing different activities, I enjoy that kind of work. Same reason I really liked the culinary side of things. I like the idea of being able to plan and organize and collaborate with the people next to you and be creative, and do those kinds of things. So I should have looked for a different job in the same company or a different job at a different company that really leaned into the things I like to do and the things that I thought I was better at than just being a salesperson. So that is the lesson just because you're good at x doesn't mean you'll be good at y all right. And now it's time for this week's just the tip. And this week's just the tip segment is something I think a lot of guys I know myself can be a little confused on and I'm going to break down very briefly very high level the difference between a suit jacket, a blazer, and a sports coat. So cue the Miami Vice music if you're old enough to get that reference. So first of all, a suit jacket is the most formal jacket outside of a tux. But the regular suit jacket traditionally is the most formal thing the guy can wear. It is made from the same material as pants, they all go together. It is very structured, very tailored, it can have a pattern, but it's usually small, like a small pinstripe or something like that. But very formal. The next step down from that is a blazer. The Blazer is usually solid color. And it usually has buttons on the sleeves and then on on the jacket itself that are a different or a contrasting color from the blazer, as well. It's also typically more structured, it can be tailored, more structured this would be if you wanted to feel a little sporty. But beyond the more formal side of this, you would pair this with a different pair of pants or even jeans, but it would be on the more formal side of that look. And then the most casual jacket for a guy is going to be the sports coat and that's going to typically be a pattern jacket that is going to be more loosely structured. Not necessarily loose fitting just kind of a loose structure where it's not super formal, and not really tailored. It can have some some thicker or some texture patterns or different patterns or whatever. So those are sort of the three things that's going to be hey, I want to go somewhere and look nice, but I want to keep it casual. That would be kind of a your date night maybe or guys night and you're going to a game or concert or something like that. The Blazers going to be a little bit more formal him and maybe wear that to work with with jeans and nice loafers or something like that. And then a suit jacket is going to be him wearing a suit today. It's Harvey Specter time. So that is the difference that is this week's just the tip between a suit jacket, a blazer and a sports coat. I hope that helps.
Okay, so we talked about the story of me moving from essentially a sales job into a trainer role, which was a really good fit, and then kind of persuaded air quotes into taking us Sales Manager role, which was not a very good fit, I didn't feel comfortable in the role, I didn't think I did a good job. And I say not comfortable in the role not because I didn't want to be uncomfortable and grow, I felt uncomfortable in the role because I didn't think I was qualified, I didn't have the right skill set. And I thought, if I was going to do that, I would need a few more stops along the tour to build my skill set before I came back to that role as a sales manager where I can be more well rounded, be more of a grown up and be better better versed in how to how to handle that role. So the lesson that I learned from all of that was, just because you're good at one part of the job or one job doesn't mean that you're automatically going to be good at the next job above that. And so often, we see that with salespeople, they're a good salesperson, then they get promoted to be the sales manager, those are two completely different skill sets. And I fell victim to that early on. I know scores of other people and other companies and other industries that don't have anything to do with sales, the same concept where that happens, where you're good at one thing, but that's a completely different skill set and way of working and thinking and everything. And you can be a good manager or the good next level of that person. But you probably need to go fill out your your skill set resume, if you will, and spend time in other fields. So you kind of build that build that up. And the advice that I would tell you is I think oftentimes why that mistake is made by the employee. Why they say yes, is because they see dollar signs, and can't blame anybody for that we've all done it, we've all taken jobs, or consider taking jobs that were more money, even if they weren't a great fit for us. But you know, hey, if I'm gonna get 10,000 20,000 or more of a raise, like that's really hard to turn down. So it's like, okay, well, I'll figure it out, we'll take the money, and I'll figure out how to do it. But my advice is as difficult as it might be, and I've tried to force myself to at least consider this as an option. And my wife and I have talked about this a lot with with her career as well, is yes, you can't avoid chasing some money to some degree. But more important than that is Chase good leadership, and find good companies and good people to work with and work for, because that is going to pay off far more in a relatively short period of time, than if you just go chase the money, knowing that it's probably not a great fit for you culturally, or role specific or whatever. So I would encourage people, the advice that I would tell myself if I could go back over again, was Chase, good leadership, Chase, good company, Chase, good. People don't just chase the money. If it's if it's something you can forego or take a different direction, and it's not going to negatively impact you or your family, and you can still move, still make it happen. It's going to be far better for your career. Because typically what ends up happening, you see it all the time in sports, right? See athletes going from one team to the other. And you're thinking, Why the hell would you go there, like it's not even a fit at all. You're the fourth person on the team that's going to need the ball all the time, or whatever the case is. And the same thing with the company or the sports teams that you see is like, why would you get that person like seven years ago, they were great. But right now they're not they're not great anymore. So why are you overpaying and overspending for that name? So I think both times in both instances, the company or the employee, oftentimes chase the solution. That is the wrong one. But it's the it's the shortest route, versus taking a step back and saying what do I need to do to build my career. So I can delay that gratification of money just a little bit until I get to be more well rounded as a person. And then I can lay that on top of a myriad of jobs that wouldn't even be open to me, because I was willing just to go spend a little extra time doing something or I just leaned into what I was already good at and spent more time in jobs that were more closely related to my skill set. So that is the advice that I would give don't chase money Chase good leadership, chase a good opportunity chase the opportunity for growth, and you will be very happy with yourself in short order.
Okay, now it's time for this week's Westberg at this week's whispering is an Instagram account that I've been following for about two years I think it is called gents lounge like gentleman's lounge, gents Lounge on IG. And the guys that run it are Blake and George. And they do an awesome job of having like really cool guy stuff. There's a lot of fashion stuff on there, which is really helpful of how to style things. color combinations, information like what's the difference between a blazer and a sports coat. But they also do a lot of really cool guys stuff like they talk to you about cigars and whiskey and how to make ice and different accessories for guys and all that kind of stuff. So it's a really cool account. There's new content very consistently, and they have a ton of overall content. So I highly recommend checking them out giving them a follow chance lounge site, gentleman's chance Lounge on Instagram, this week's whisperer.
Alright, as we get ready to wrap up another episode of The Story lesson advice podcast, I want to thank you for listening and giving me a chance, given this podcast the chance appreciate it, if you want to check out some of the other stuff I have going on now. And coming up, Sid media.net is where you can find that we're gonna have product reviews, book review, podcast, coming up cooking videos coming up on YouTube. So lots of stuff as I build this out slowly, and hopefully provide good content, good value for everybody that's listening and watching. So to go back and look at the story of myself, taking on a sales job, eventually getting into a training role, which was a very good fit. And then figuring out that being a sales manager, which was my next step was not a good fit, not the right skill set, the lesson that I would give you is just because you're good at one thing doesn't mean you're going to be good at the other. So just because you're a good salesperson or good line cook doesn't mean you're ready to be a chef, it doesn't mean you're ready to be the sales manager. And the advice that I would give is don't chase money, Chase good leadership and chase good opportunity for you to build out your skill set and build out your portfolio as a person. And that's the advice I would go back and give myself if I could and advice I'll give my daughter one day as well. For the sponsor I wish I had as I reach for my can have a Lani energy drink in Cherry crush. This is an absolutely awesome energy drink the best one that my wife and I have ever found over the years. I love it because it does not have a crash. It also does not give you the jitters. And it's just a nice, slow trickle of energy for an extended period of time. And it is by far the best tasting one I've ever had. For the just the tip segment talked about the difference between a suit jacket, a blazer and a sports coat. It's a little wordy. So I'll let you go back and listen to that if you need to at a very high level for some explanation, and then slightly tied to that this week's whispering was the gents lounge Instagram account that I've been following for a couple of years. Blake in Georgia, the guys that run it, it's a really cool account. They do a ton of great kind of fashion heavy stuff to help guys figure out what to do. And then also just a lot of guy centric stuff as far as like, here's highlighted cigar, which I talked about the first season on just the tip, and how to how to dress for this occasion and how to make clear ice and here's five bourbons and what they're best paired with to make an old fashioned or whatever, all sorts of cool guy stuff. So it's a really fun account. And there's a ton of content on there. So I highly recommend giving them a look. And I'll follow so that is it for this week's episode of story lesson advice. I'll be back next week and then later in February will be the I hate reading podcast. I've already got four books that have already been read and complete. Can't believe I've read four books. And we'll be rolling through those every other week. So thank you for listening and I will talk to you guys next week.