Episode Transcript

Sam Owens 0:00
Yes, check you did your research but you didn’t research enough to realize that I would have no idea how to answer that question. So you want to avoid those questions.

Chris Villanueva 0:12
Welcome to the Let’s Eat, Grandma, Career Warrior Podcast. And welcome to the Let’s Eat, Grandma, Career Warrior Podcast where our goal is not only to help you land your dream job, but to help you live your best life.

Chris Villanueva 0:28
Today, we’re going to talk about how to nail the interview, we’re going to do deep dive on some of the most common job interview questions, in my opinion. So many job seekers are far too competent when it comes to their own interviewing skills. I’ve put out studies before I’ve asked our own clients and everyone feels like they’re above average. And when everyone feels like they are above average, there’s something wrong here.

Chris Villanueva 0:51
So for you, the career warrior listening to this podcast, I want you to think about some of the things that you can improve upon when it comes to the interview, it’s so important to make sure to stand out above all of the other folks who you’re going to be competing against. So, just thought I’d pull some fun stats to get your mind going when it comes to the interview.

Chris Villanueva 1:10
Here’s some fun facts. According to Forbes, you have about seven seconds to make a strong impression. 67% of interviewers believe that maintaining eye contact is essential for making a positive impression that comes from job spin. And also, I don’t think this is an indeed stat here. But 82% of hiring managers employ virtual interviews, a lot of that has shifted obviously over the last few years. And that’s just something else to think about.

Chris Villanueva 1:38
So, consider this episode, an opportunity for you to pick up a thing or two make it a goal to write down one thing that you can take away from this episode that so that you can move forward in your job search. So I brought on the amazing Sam Owens who’s a veteran guest for this podcast.

Chris Villanueva 1:55
Sam is the founder of Sam’s career talk where he provides career coaching services and helps people land their dream jobs and thrive in them. Sam is also a chief marketing officer who has worked for three multibillion dollar companies in the CPG industry. And he now runs marketing for freezing point, the makers of frazzle.

Chris Villanueva 2:16
He’s the author of I hate the job interviews, an exciting book that will be released by HarperCollins. On June 4, upcoming that will be released by HarperCollins on June 4. So I’m so excited for this episode, we’re gonna have a lot of fun. And again, imagine yourself running through the interview yourself as we cover some of these questions coming up. Without further ado, here is our 330th episode of the Career Warrior Podcast.

Chris Villanueva 2:47
Sam, thanks so much for coming back on the show. It’s great to have you man,

Sam Owens 2:51
Chris, thanks for having me again. And 330 That’s like legit, three 330 episodes. You’re now in the upper echelon of podcasters. Like, there’s gotta be people that bail out after 200. Right?

Chris Villanueva 3:04
I mean, I you know, funny enough, almost gave up after Episode one that was the hardest episode to do. And then there was so much of a gap between Episode One and two. 

Sam Owens 3:15
So it feels like it makes sense Kinda, yeah,

Chris Villanueva 3:17
It was. It’s been fun. And I love helping job seekers and love interviewing people like you. So my opener question for you, I cannot think of a better question is the name of your book is I Hate Job Interviews. Can you tell us how you came up with that name and kind of prime guests for what’s to come here?

Sam Owens 3:34
Yeah, yeah, I, I’m a consumer marketer. And so I wanted a title that resonated with people and described not just what they think how they’re feeling about things. And that’s probably the biggest feeling that I can sense when I consult with in my career consulting, when I help people with job interviews.

Sam Owens 3:57
The reason they’re coming to me, is because I’ve had some bad experiences. And they’re like, Look, I am sick of this. I hate this, like, I want this part to be done. And the whole premise of the book is you kind of I can relate to that, gosh, I hate this thing. But after they read it, I say my introduction, I want them actually to love job interview.

Sam Owens 4:18
I want them to love it. Because they’re so good at it. We typically hate things we’re bad at and we love things that we’re good at. And so it’s kind of the idea is grab them where they’re at, and then help them turn that around completely by the end of the book.

Chris Villanueva 4:32
Yeah. What do you think is like the main if you get pinpointed to like one or two things like the main thing that people hate or just having anxiety about job interviews?

Sam Owens 4:41
Yeah, I think it’s the, it’s the vulnerability of just being evaluated real time is not it’s just not fun. It’s less stress, a lot of pressure.

Chris Villanueva 4:50
Yeah.

Sam Owens 4:50
And the stakes are so high in a job interview, and I say this to people and some people don’t like this, but it may be the most important An hour of your career, and not because you’re going to do your best work in that hour, because it’s the hour that determines all the other hours.

Sam Owens 5:06
But without a successful job interview, none of the other hours are doable, feasible. And so I think that is why it’s so stressful for people, the stakes are so high.

Sam Owens 5:19
There’s uncertainty. If you don’t get the job, you’re you’re, you know, you’re like, oh, great, now I’m back to square one, I’m gonna do everything over again, I really want this to go well, and not not only I’m being evaluated in real time, what’s the interviewer thinking of me what’s going on. So all those things combined, just make it super stressful for certain people.

Chris Villanueva 5:41
Yeah, I just went to a, it was a talk with Marcus Lemonis, here in Austin, and one of the speakers came up and talked about these high stakes situations and having stressful situations. And recommended, you know, whenever you have moments like that, you have to be yourself, you have to be able to communicate.

Chris Villanueva 5:59
And she recommended doing this box breathing exercise where you, you know, hold your breath for, it’s like you take an inhale for two seconds, hold it for two seconds, exhale for two seconds, and then hold again for two seconds, and it creates this box.

Chris Villanueva 6:13
I’m wondering if you have any other practical ideas to just be yourself and relax. And we’ll cover the interview questions in a second here. I just for those nervous jobseekers. And I know I get nervous sometimes, too. What would you recommend?

Sam Owens 6:26
I think here’s the funny thing is, I like to breathing exercises. But I think preparation is the ultimate antidote to nerves. And the worst time to think I should have prepared is when you’re actually giving a response. And you’re thinking to yourself, oh, man, I should have prepared harder for this.

Sam Owens 6:46
So preparation really is the antidote, people sometimes think, Oh, if I prepare too much, then I’ll be like, more robotic and not myself. And so I’m not gonna prepare as much. And I found it to be the exact opposite.

Sam Owens 6:57
The rote preparation of things that allows you to free associate and to be comfortable and all those things. So I think, you know, I don’t have any breathing tips or anything, although I like those ideas, you know, whatever. Picture your interviewer naked, I don’t know, whatever. But I don’t think anything compares to going into an interview being like, you know what, I prepared my absolute best. So whatever happens now happens, but I prepared my absolute best.

Chris Villanueva 7:23
I love that response. It’s, it’s so darn important to prepare, thinking about the past times I’ve interviewed even or even been at interviews, the preparation has been the one key factor, I would say that that just would kind of either calm my nerves and just make me perform a lot better. So I love that.

Sam Owens 7:41
You have a tendency in our brains to, to think that we’re just going to be fine. Like, oh, yeah, I know how it’s going in my mind. So I think it’ll be fine. And then when we actually say it, we think, Oh, this doesn’t sound as good as I thought.

Chris Villanueva 7:42
Yeah!

Sam Owens 7:43
It’s the hitch thing that I you know, you and I have talked about before, when he goes on that date, and afterwards, it doesn’t go well. And he’s like, he looks over to the security guard. And he’s like, I saw that going differently in my mind. And I think it’s interviewing same way we see things going just fine in our brains. And then when we actually speak it, we think, oh, yeah, that didn’t sound as good as I thought.

Chris Villanueva 8:14
Yeah!

Sam Owens 8:14
And it’s best to get that out when you practice.

Chris Villanueva 8:16
I love that. So let’s talk about some of these commonly asked interview questions. I think some listeners also would be surprised by a few of them because I was reviewing these before. And I feel like people really need to understand why these questions are so important to practice here.

Chris Villanueva 8:32
So what is the first question here that we’re going to bring two listeners here that people should really get an understand?

Sam Owens 8:39
Alright, first question almost guaranteed to be asked is Tell me about yourself, or you walk me through your resume? Or, you know, why are you here? You know, it’s all the same? It’s the introductory question, right?

Sam Owens 8:52
So you’ll see, as I’m going through some of these questions that I bucket the questions by categories, so I don’t care if someone says, Walk me through your resume, tell me about yourself why you’re here. I treated the same. It’s an introductory question. And it’s an opportunity for you to take three to five minutes to really nail why you should be there, why you’re the best candidate, and right away.

Sam Owens 9:15
So if they were really asking what they wanted, as they would say, tell me why you’re the absolute perfect fit for this job and why this interview is going to be the best part of my day. Because I can go back to the company and say, Hey, I found my personality, we can stop the process. That’s what they’re asking, right? Tell me why. I don’t have to keep interviewing anymore. And you could just solve my problems.

Chris Villanueva 9:33
Or you’re saying you could seal the deal with this first question.

Sam Owens 9:36
Like only? Well, yes, exactly. Tell me why you’re amazing. And so the way to answer this is you want to make sure you you prove or demonstrate three things in this introductory statement. One, you have the right experience or relevant experience, two, that you’re a high performer, and three that you’re really interested in the job.

Sam Owens 9:55
So if I were to answer a question like that, I would study the job description and look at kind of the experiences they’re looking for. And then when they say, Tell me about yourself, I would walk them through my experiences in my resume, you know, two to three experiences, maybe starting with the most recent recently I’ve been at frazzle and the Chief Marketing Officer, here’s my responsibility. And here’s a couple or one amazing thing I did.

Sam Owens 10:19
So you’re showing the relevant experience, and then by saying an amazing thing you did, you’re highlighting okay, this person, you know, I’m a performer I perform well, you could talk about oh, and I was selected to be promoted, you know, that shows that you’re, you’re an up and comer, you can talk about awards you’ve got you could talk about results you’ve had, but weave in those things as you’re talking about your relevant experiences.

Sam Owens 10:41
So that’s the first part. And then after that, you go to the third part, which is explain why you feel like this job is so exciting to you, and why it’s the right fit for you. So you spent the first part is saying why you’re great for them. And now you spend the second part of this answer talking about why they’re great for you.

Sam Owens 11:01
Because they want that they want that give and take they want it to make sense for you to Yeah, and so that’s how I would answer a question like that could be as little as two minutes as most as five, I wouldn’t go over five. But don’t throw that question away.

Sam Owens 11:15
Don’t say, Well, you know, oh, this is a warm up question. Yeah, I’m Sam and got four kids and love to, you know, get on my dirt bike. And yeah, that’s kind of a little bit about me, you know, no, you want you want after five minutes to, for them to say, oh, okay, it’s game on this person came to interview, you know, this person knows what he or she’s talking about.

Chris Villanueva 11:35
So first of all, like to follow up to that, number one, how long let’s say this is like a 30 minute interview, you can change that.

Chris Villanueva 11:42
he second is, so like, I’ve spent a lot of time and I know you with your marketing background to like, the hooks are so important. Like those first six seconds, we talked about whether with a YouTube ad, or just a really compelling copy, for example, in an advertisement, or just like that first hook, you really want to get people do you have any tips there for how to really open up within the very first few words that come out of your mouth?

Sam Owens 12:08
Great, very first few words. You know what I usually say? I say, first of all, thank you so much for this opportunity to interview. I’ve been looking forward to this, and I am really excited about this opportunity.

Sam Owens 12:20
That will be the very first thing I would say cool, like, okay, just so you know, I’m grateful. And I’m excited to be here. Right. So thanks for your question. Now. Let me see if I can just walk you through some of my experiences and how I think they’re relevant to the job.

Chris Villanueva 12:34
It’s I mean, that’s that’s a strong impression for me, too. It’s like the shoes YaSM you’re you may not be getting from the other job seekers to it’s like, really strong energy.

Sam Owens 12:41
That’s right. Yeah, some people just go straight into the question, you know, and it’s like, okay, well, that’s fine. You know? Yeah. All right. Well, let me tell you, I’m experienced, but I think if you set the stage there, you’re really taking command of the interview, you know, you’re making an emotional connection, right away, not just a factual one, you’re making an emotional connection with the interviewer. And I think that’s important to do right away.

Chris Villanueva 13:03
So what’s the second question that we’re gonna go into today?

Sam Owens 13:06
Okay, here’s one that people struggle with, what’s your greatest strength? And I think one of the reasons that people struggle with this, kind of like, what’s your greatest weakness in the sense that like, you feel like if you give, you know, you don’t want to be like braggy.

Sam Owens 13:21
But you also want to show that you do have strengths. So it’s, it’s just kind of a weird position that some people get into. But I think the answer to this question is to reframe the question to what is your greatest strength as it pertains to this job?

Chris Villanueva 13:36
Boom. Right, right. People forget that. Yeah!

Sam Owens 13:38
Yeah. People forget that.And so sometimes they’re like, Well, I, you know, I’m a marathon runner, or, you know, I do these things, and

Chris Villanueva 13:45
Right, and then the marathon runner ties in their head to the job, but they’re, they haven’t really communicated how it pertains the job directly.

Sam Owens 13:52
Exactly! Maybe their greatest strength is, you know, I am really good at kind of enduring, enduring, challenging work environments, and enduring, you know, long hours or whatever, that could be tied into partially marathon runner, but it’s really as it pertains to this job. And so the answer comes from a careful study of the job description. And this is, by the way, since being watched since I category thing and categorize questions, this is a huge question.

Sam Owens 14:19
Okay. In a huge question, the model I like to use is C S, E, E. So if they’re asking a question about you help them see U stands for statement explanation example. So the way you would answer that question, you say, I think my greatest strength is my analytical ability.

Sam Owens 14:38
That’s your statement, right? Maybe you’re going for a data job and analytics are the points that might my greatest strength, I think, is my analytical ability. So that’s a statement then you go to explain really quick. What I mean by that is, I’m very good at taking complex problems and simplifying them into actionable insights that companies can run with.

Sam Owens 14:58
Okay. That’s your explanation. And for example, I recently was asked to manage inventory for my last company, which was a retailer. And I built a model that enabled us to look at our inventory in such a way that we were maximizing profit, and top line sales. And that model today is actually still in use and was able to save the company $500,000 annually as part of that model.

Sam Owens 15:24
So you gave the strength, you explained a little bit what you mean. And then he gave a quick example. That’s how you use the C model when they ask you a question like that.

Chris Villanueva 15:33
Okay, on the fly, I’m gonna go for my C right here, just listeners are going to be way better than this, because this is unrehearsed anyway.

Chris Villanueva 15:42
So I’m gonna say for me, my greatest strength is my ability to communicate in a creative and charismatic manner. What I mean by that is, I’m able to take boring ideas that are really important and communicate them in a way that inspires people to take action.

Chris Villanueva 16:02
An example of that is Recently we did a podcast about applicant tracking systems, I can’t think of a more boring thing to talk about than that, was able to put in some funny examples and ended up making it one of our top performing episodes just because it was a boring concept. And I spoke about it in a better way. See, I blew it. blew it right there, Sam. Yeah.

Sam Owens 16:25
But this is the value of practice, which is like, okay, good. I got it. Oh, yeah, I can tweak it the next time you answer that question, in a real interview, you’re gonna nail it. You know what I mean? So that’s it, you got the idea that you got the concept down. Really good.

Chris Villanueva 16:38
And so we’re gonna move on to the third one in a second here. But yeah, I almost skipped over this. I just want to ask if you have any quick tips about the weakness question, I hate it so much. But I think it’s something that is just it’s, it’s the perfect follow up to the strength question.

Sam Owens 16:52
Totally, I’ll do it quickly. Basically, you don’t want to give a weakness that looks like a fake weakness, like, I just care too much, or I love people. But you also don’t want to give like an egregious weakness, like, I don’t like to come to work, or I have a tough time get being on time or something where they’re like, well, that’s weird.

Sam Owens 17:06
So you want to get a reasonable weakness. And then you talk about what you’re doing to address it, you know, a, I have a bias for action, which is great, but at times can mean that, in my zeal to get things done, sometimes it can make my team uncomfortable, because they don’t feel like I’ve crossed all the T’s and dotted all the i’s.

Sam Owens 17:26
So what I’ve done as a result of that is anytime I’m about to make a big business decision, and move things forward, I call people who I know are a little bit more hesitant, maybe risk averse than me and ask them and get their ideas and allow them to incorporate their feedback. And every time I’ve done that, it’s been really, really valuable and is made the decision better. You know, so I’ll tell you one, reasonable weakness, what you’re doing to address it maybe an example of how it’s going well,

Chris Villanueva 17:54
Cool. I love that. So what would the what’s the third question we’re gonna cover today? I think so first, first ones are basic. Here’s where we get a little bit more juicy assay.

Sam Owens 18:05
I’ll talk about trap questions. So this is kind of a trap question. Because it can lead you to a place you don’t want to go like negative and they can start feeling like, oh, there’s some negativity there.

Sam Owens 18:15
So what do you typically want to do in a response like this? Is you want to actually stay positive and focus on what this current job can give you that your previous job didn’t give you like on a professional level?

Chris Villanueva 18:30
Yeah.

Sam Owens 18:30
So for example, you could say, Look, why are you leaving your current job, I actually really am enjoying my current job, it’s been a successful opportunity for me, I love the culture, the people. But I’ve also found that I think I’m running out of runway professionally. And what makes me so excited about this job is that I can take what I’ve learned that this this and apply it in a different way cooler on a bigger scale, or whatever.

Sam Owens 18:56
So you, you pick out the things that your current job lacks. And then you highlight how this future job will deliver that for you and why you’re excited. So you just really make it sound like it makes sense. from a career standpoint.

Sam Owens 19:10
Even if part of the reason you’re leaving your job is that your boss totally sucks, right? It’s fine. You just don’t have to highlight that part. You can highlight how there’s the parts you like about your current job and in the parts, that you’re what you’re gonna get that you can’t get at your current job with this new job.

Chris Villanueva 19:26
That makes a lot of sense. How common would you say this question is? I knew I’ve been asked it before, but it just seems like this is like it’s pretty big.

Sam Owens 19:34
Yeah! I’ll tell you what, it’s on everyone’s mind. For sure. And typically, if you do the introductory question, right? You may not get asked it, you know, because you’re kind of saying, here’s why I’m so interested. And here’s why it’s the next step. But just in case they miss it or it doesn’t come up. I think it’s a decently common question because they really do want to know like, how does this fit in because really what they’re evaluating is does this make sense?

Sam Owens 20:01
Like, why? Really there’s there’s a healthy amount of skepticism with every hiring manager. And so you almost have to assuage, you almost have to like, massage that a little bit and make them feel okay about it like, oh, yeah, I get I get why you’re leaving to do this, I would do that too, right?

Sam Owens 20:18
You know, I do the same thing instead of like, Oh, sounds like you’re difficult to work with. And so you just need a new job. Like, that’s the skepticism that’s underpinning it. So it’s your job to make them feel really comfortable that no, that’s not it at all. Yeah, actually, I’m on fire right now. I’m doing great. But this just gives me such a cool opportunity. Yeah, that that’s why I’m applying.

Chris Villanueva 20:39
Yeah and listeners, I definitely would, in the back of your mind is be prepared to answer that. Don’t let it catch you off guard don’t get defensive even I mean, just the subtleties of it. You don’t want that to take over.

Sam Owens 20:50
That’s right.

Chris Villanueva 20:51
Don’t let it disrupt your flow. This question is similar. I would also put it in the category of would you say trap question, the trap question category? Yes, I would say like 40% of our clients here at Let’s Eat, Grandma are career changers of some sort.

Chris Villanueva 21:08
They’re transitioning, I would say either like industry or position altogether, or it’s just it’s not a linear path. So it’s, I can imagine someone saying the same question. So like, Why are you breaking into, you know, tech? Or why are you going to be doing, you know, product management. Now, when it looks like you’ve been in the analyst position? Personally, I’m here. So I need to dress those sorts of questions.

Sam Owens 21:32
Yeah,great question very similarly. I mean, what you don’t want to do is make it sound like the previous 15 years of your your career was a mistake, or something like that, you know, it’s not a mistake. It’s a part of your story. It’s a part of your journey. And it has application.

Sam Owens 21:48
Remember, the reason you’re being selected to interview is because they looked at your resume and decided that you were interesting enough to interview so you don’t need to be ashamed of your prior experience. Oh, shoot, I hope they don’t think I’m qualified. Now. You are qualified, because you were selected to interview.

Sam Owens 22:03
So that’s, that’s the first thing to remember, you are qualified. And so I would handle it in a very similar fashion, hey, look, the first part of my career gave me the skills. And I loved it. And it did these things for me. But as I look to the future, I want to apply these skills in a different way. Or I want to do it on a bigger scale, or I want to go smaller, and it because it fits my lifestyle.

Sam Owens 22:26
There’s a lot of reasons. The key is to just bridge your prior experience. To not say, I know you don’t want to be like, oh, yeah, I’m throwing or I know I’m throwing it all away. And I’m starting over No, you’re not not starting. Now. you’re leveraging valuable things that you’ve learned to take it in a different direction now, I always tell story about buddy, who was a PhD in history, and he was trying to get into marketing. And he’s sitting there interviewing with Disney to be like the brand manager Winnie the Pooh or something like that. And like, so what, what, like, why, you know, basically, he was able to say, Look, I know, I’m a PhD in history, which does not look like the typical candidate.

Sam Owens 23:07
But really, what interests me so much about history, is the notion that I am is the study of people, and the study of why people do what they do. And that’s why it marketing is so interesting to me.

Sam Owens 23:20
That’s why I decided to study marketing and go into he was he was in business school. So he’s transitioning in that regard, right. But he was able to basically, weave a story that actually made him look like a pretty good fit to be a brand manager and Winnie the Pooh, he could have been like, Hey, I know I’m a PhD in history. I’m sorry.

Chris Villanueva 23:34
No apologies. Yeah, no, yeah.

Sam Owens 23:37
It’s like, no, no, no, what got him there was he was actually really qualified. He just had to own that for himself and take charge of that for himself.

Chris Villanueva 23:46
Yeah, there are so and just again, to like, give people the reassurance you are not the only one making a career change. There’s so many people now more than ever who were transitioning, right, something different. And so just the fact a note, knowing the fact that you’re not alone, there I think just gives you a little bit more of a boost. Not feeling weird about making your change, like this is a normal thing. But as Sam said, Just bridge that gap. I just thought that is so darn important.

Chris Villanueva 24:11
So forth. Question coming up in a second here. But I just have one more Zinger. And I know this is on people’s minds, I get asked this all the time, but if you have a career gap, for whatever reason, so maybe you just haven’t No luck on the job search, or maybe you’ve taken a gap year to travel or just kids health, whatever it may be.

Chris Villanueva 24:31
How do you address the question? You know, I don’t even know how people would ask this, but you haven’t been working in the last six to 12 months. Like what have you been doing those sorts of questions?

Sam Owens 24:41
Absolutely. I think there are, again, this is the same thing is if they smell blood in the water, you know, then they’ll go after it. If you are totally comfortable with your gap and it feels deliberate. And it feels you know, it made maybe it wasn’t what you chose, but you’ve made the most of it. I think there’s definitely a way to get over this.

Sam Owens 25:01
So one is, you know, I’ve decided to, you know, take time for my family, and really was selective about evaluating what I wanted to do next, or I decided to consult, I know, I was released let go as part of a broad layoff. But I didn’t let that get me down. So I made the most of it, it kind of started an entrepreneurial venture over the last six to 12 months, and it’s actually going, you know, pretty well, you know, so there are a lot of ways I think, to show confidence show that it’s okay, it’s, again, I really like your comic, Chris, but not being alone.

Sam Owens 25:34
There are so many people in a situation, right, you know, what I’ve found about people in that situation, they always find a job, they always find a job. So if someone says it’s been a year, and I don’t have a job, what do I do? I say, Well, I don’t know. But I know one thing is for sure, I know you will get a job. Because of the clients I’ve worked with. And to the to the people, I’ve seen 100% of people who are in that situation, wind up getting a job if they want to, they wind up getting a job.

Sam Owens 26:01
So I think that’s just the end goal is just people need to know they’re going to get a job.

Chris Villanueva 26:06
Sam, I love it. What is question number four, we’re going to be talking about common Lee asked interview questions.

Sam Owens 26:13
Great. What would you do in your first 90 days on the job? So here’s that this is what I call scenario question. So there’s a lot of these. So the challenge with a scenario question is, people feel like they’re so open ended that people just don’t know where to start. And then they wind up getting going on a path down a path, and then they kind of get lost in their answer, you know, oh, I would look at your social media, because I think your logos weird or whatever. And then they’re kind of like, well, I don’t know where to go from here.

Sam Owens 26:46
Right? Yeah. But if you go, if you can establish what I call a home base, which is just like general like up front paws principle, then you can actually explore paths from that home base, and then come back to it. So like, if someone says, What would you do in your first 90 days, a good home base, needs to be kind of broad enough to have paths against it.

Sam Owens 27:09
So it could be something like, I would focus on first learning as much as I can, you know, contributing as much as I can, and building relationships. Okay, so that’s like the foundation of your ancestor home base. And then you can kind of take that piece of together.

Sam Owens 27:25
Here’s what I mean, by learning as much as I can, I mean, this study, etc, etc. Here’s what I mean, by building relationships, I would take everyone out to lunch and just understand the business dynamics and the culture, and then finally contributing, I’m not going to change the world in the first 90 days, but I do think I have some things to offer, I think I can look at this and that and the other thing, so that establishing that home base gives you a more complete answer. And it also allows you if like, one of your paths, like contributing doesn’t sound as good, you can always come back to home base, and then just focus on relationships or something like that.

Sam Owens 28:01
It just feels more complete, and it doesn’t make every part of the answer have so much pressure on it, you know? Right. That’s how I will approach a question like that.

Chris Villanueva 28:11
Right? So that’s 9090 days, are there variations that are like that you need to adjust for us to say it’s like a shorter amount of time.

Sam Owens 28:19
What opportunities do you see in our business to improve? How would you go about solving this challenge? Yes. Again, you know, how would you fix our social media strategy? Oh, you’re on Facebook, you should be on Instagram? No, no, no, just backing up, I would be first and foremost interested in who your consumer is. And understanding that would affect platforms, it would affect how much money you spend, and it would affect the type of creative right that you gain.

Sam Owens 28:45
So let me just take each of those three. Let’s start with the platform’s let’s start with, you know, so if you back it up to give yourself a little wiggle room, right, you’re going to have a much more successful answer to that question.

Chris Villanueva 28:57
I’m thinking like that’s, that is so tough. Like imagine someone coming in as a know it all, you really know nothing until you’ve stepped in the company. And you’ve spent a lot of you put in the time analyzing the problem.

Chris Villanueva 29:08
Like I could look at someone’s social media and think that I know all the answers, but unless you’ve unless you really, truly understand the problem, like who the target audience is, right? Like what types of messages they respond to like looking at that stuff, then you really don’t know.

Chris Villanueva 29:23
So I like I mean, the humility like to kind of talk about learning in the very beginning, I think is really important.

Sam Owens 29:28
And yeah, it’s a balance. It’s a balance. You don’t want to act like you’re gonna do nothing. But you also don’t want to act like you’re gonna solve all the problems. So you have to get to show that self awareness. Yeah. In your answer to.

Chris Villanueva 29:39
Yeah, you can not wing that question. I’m just saying people coming in and winging it. Like no, you have to prepare.

Sam Owens 29:44
Yeah, I think that is a question. Like to prepare for ahead of time. Every time that you study the company, it’s one to prepare for.

Chris Villanueva 29:52
Alright, same. What’s the next question here?

Sam Owens 29:55
Hey, we’re on number five years this fall. So when they ask in the end, do you have any questions for me? They almost always ask this. I mean, this is I’d say 90% of the time plus unless you’re totally out of time.