Episode Transcript

Chris Villanueva 0:16
Welcome to the Let’s Eat, Grandma Career Warrior Podcast where your podcast

Chris Villanueva 0:24
Hey, y’all today we have a special episode about how to break into top leadership roles got really excited about this episode, because I know so many of you are looking to move on up and advance in your careers to break barriers.

Chris Villanueva 0:36
Well, this episode is going to be all about that. I know we live in a really wonky time. Here this year, we’ve already had 57,000 layoffs in the US based tech companies and to read a quote from a top executive in the hiring space, the labor market is 100% change from two years ago employers are holding the cards.

Chris Villanueva 0:54
Well, my message today in through this talk, you’ll realize that employers are not holding all the cards. In fact, you have so much power, so much leverage and what I want you to do is think about the struggles you’re going through right now and remind yourself it’s only temporary.

Chris Villanueva 1:12
The goals you have and the ambitions you have are so valuable and you just have to get clear on that vision of what you want exactly and keep moving forward and you’re going to hear some stories today, real client stories from Maya Grossman about people who broke past those barriers, and were able to secure those top leadership positions. So from wherever you’re listening, I hope that this message resonates and hits you hard today and encourages you to keep moving forward and to do the right things eventually to get you to those top leadership positions where you want to be.

Chris Villanueva 1:34
So a little bit about Maya. She is a LinkedIn top voice with a following of over 115,000. She’s been on this podcast before and I’ve met with her in Austin, but she’s just been such an amazing person to follow and she continues to put out great content after great content, leading the way for job seekers.

Chris Villanueva 2:07
She has a book called invaluable master the 10 skills you need to skyrocket your career. She’s done her time in the corporate world. She’s worked anywhere from a position as individual contributor to VP level roles, achieving 10 promotions and 15 years and now she’s looking to teach ambitious professionals how to level up into executive roles and make leaps in their careers to earn six figures without working harder.

Chris Villanueva 2:32
So without further ado, here’s that recording with Maya Grossman in the live event we had here in Austin, Texas.

Chris Villanueva 2:41
Alright, everybody, and thank you for joining us for today’s event here in Austin, Texas. My name is Chris Villanueva I’m the CEO and co founder of Let’s Eat, Grandma, we are a resume writing service focused on helping senior level professionals advanced within their careers.

Chris Villanueva 2:56
We have some amazing content coming up for you, and a really nice group here in Austin and if you are in the live stream right now, we welcome you as part of our extended family here.

Chris Villanueva 3:06
Matt here is going to be monitoring the comments. So don’t be afraid to shout out let him tell Austin his mustaches. Matt, come here so we can see your mustache. Thank you though. It’s really a beautiful mustache and it’s not fake as everyone. Thanks. So seriously, let us know any comments or questions you have for our guests who I will introduce here in a second.

Chris Villanueva 3:25
Just to talk about today’s event, I just thought I would pull up some stats, layoffs, the current job market, it’s a really big top of my thing right now. So we wanted to create an event for the times and for people who were having a hard time. So regardless tonight, if you have been laid off, or you are just looking to move or take a step forward in your career, I know you made the right choice for being here today.

Chris Villanueva 3:47
Some stats. So far here 2020, for at least 57,000 workers in US based tech companies had been laid off. So read a quote from a top executive in the hiring space, the labor market has 100% changed in the last two years and four years are holding the cards now.

Chris Villanueva 4:04
My message today is that employers are not holding all the cards. My message is that you have negotiating power. And today is your day to take advantage of your career and just to really move forward. A lot of the clients who have come to us at Let’s Eat, Grandma, a lot of them have been laid off.

Chris Villanueva 4:22
I think more than ever, I can like feel the stress and some of the things that people are saying like I’m not getting the results they want. I’m applying to 150 plus jobs and I’m not getting any sort of feedback that I want to get. So I know it’s different. But there is definitely a way forward and I’m here to encourage you that I think it’s your time to really take advantage of this and move forward. It’s good.

Chris Villanueva 4:42
So this event will be a transformative session designed to help you push past barriers, overcome setbacks and break it to top leadership roles after this event will be a chance for us to get to know one another perhaps help each other out with anything that we may have to offer. This is a really good opportunity to network beyond just kind of like listening to a talk here.

Chris Villanueva 5:04
So without further ado, my guest that I’m bringing here today is none other than the legendary Maya Grossman. Maya is a LinkedIn top voice with a following of over 115,000 Maya as a best selling author and you may even have read her book invaluable master the 10 skills, you need to skyrocket your career, she spent 13 years in the corporate world, anything from an individual contributor to VP.

Chris Villanueva 5:29
She’s worked for Google, Microsoft, and a variety of roles and she’s just a great person overall, to do this talk. So I’m so excited. So whether you are just starting off in your professional journey, or you’ve been made, you’ve been in the career matrix for years, understanding these truths can be a game changer and attending this talk is going to be truly magnificent. So without further ado, here’s Maya Grossman, and welcome to the stage.

Maya Grossman 5:54
Hi, everyone, this still excited to see everyone here and everyone on the live and I hope that you’re gonna get something meaningful out of the session today, and it’s going to be a little bit different, I think, because what we’re going to talk about today is how you can level up, how you can actually get promoted how you can grow your career, even after being laid off.

Maya Grossman 6:16
Even as you’ve been told that you’re not good at us, even as you’ve been told that you’re not ready, but deep down inside, you know, you have what it takes and the way that we’re going to talk about this is by looking at a case study. So an actual frill person just like you for in a similar situation, and figured out how to actually get through it and we’re gonna talk about my client who was able to level up from director to VP in just six months.

Maya Grossman 6:43
And I want to give you some context of how it all started. Because she was actually let go after spending almost two years with a company, she had the best performance reviews and yet, we don’t think that you’re good enough for the school, and what happened after that was something that so many people are going through right now.

Maya Grossman 7:03
So I want to show you the five things that we did the five less than that will actually allow you to bounce back to figure out what you really want, and get that promotion and add a little bit of a caveat, because we’re not going to be talking about resumes, we’re not going to be talking about interviews, I’m gonna leave that to Chris, he’s the expert.

Maya Grossman 7:24
We’re going to talk about everything that happens before everything that gives you superpowers, so that you can actually make the impossible.

Maya Grossman 7:32
So let’s start when thinking about this client, this person who was just let go, and I have been talking to so many people in the same situation, and it’s important for you to know, good people get laid off, successful people get laid off high achievers, people who give 120% get laid off.

Maya Grossman 7:54
It has nothing to do with you. Here’s the problem. It doesn’t feel that way. No matter how good you are, no matter how incredible your background is, my client has 10 years of freaking awesome results and still, when one person, one manager said you’re not good enough, and they let her go, her ego took a massive hit her self esteem was in lust or, and it happens all the time and it doesn’t matter how many times people will tell you, especially your family, or friends, you’re amazing.

Maya Grossman 8:25
You don’t believe it, because something inside is telling you that that person that one person who said, You’re not gonna know. That’s the voice that you’re listening to, and this is exactly what happened to my client. And it went so bad that she started interviewing for senior manager roles.

Maya Grossman 8:45
She was the director for four years, she was dreaming of a VP role. Three months before this happened, she was sure that she was on the path to success. So she started interviewing for senior manager roles and guess what happened, but someone who was ready to be a VP sends their resume for senior manager roles.

Maya Grossman 9:03
She didn’t hear back, they knew they couldn’t afford her. It wasn’t even an option. But here’s what happened. It created a vicious cycle where she thinks she’s not good enough. She’s applying for roles that are way below but she used to and she’s getting rejections or not hearing at all. So she tells him herself. I’m probably not good enough. So I should just you know probably quit and or something. She actually said I’m probably go and teach skiing.

Maya Grossman 9:32
That’s it like I’m gonna leave tech after 10 years, and this is what I’m gonna do. But this is really common and by the way, not just with women, I work with both men and women, and it happens to everyone. So how do you actually get out of this situation because this is what you need to do. Just sending out your resume when you feel like that is not going to be helpful.

Maya Grossman 9:54
So step number one in making this transition was to rebuild hold herself worse, and it’s so important to understand that while the laid off is painful, no matter how you look at it, it’s going to hurt, you need to take the time to grieve, you need to acknowledge it. And then you have to move on, because being laid off is not an indication of what you can or can’t do.

Maya Grossman 10:22
95% of the time when you’re being laid off, it’s not used. It’s just a business decision that the company made. This is why I said successful people get laid off, VPS still get laid off, people who give 120% and high achievers still get laid off and guess what, they continue to grow, and they continue to do amazing things.

Maya Grossman 10:43
So you have to remind yourself, that your past does not define your future. But you’re thinking my if I know that, but when it feels like shit, it’s really hard to do that. I know. So here’s what we actually ended up doing. Because it’s so hard to get this confidence from within, when you don’t have it.

Maya Grossman 11:05
So you need to get outside reinforced with and what we ended up doing is getting external validation. The here’s the important part, you can’t just go to your friends or your family or your spouse because they love you unconditionally, and they also don’t know you in a work environment.

Maya Grossman 11:22
So what my client ended up doing is reaching out to past managers and leaders that you worked for and she wanted to hear from them how they saw her, if they believe that you had the potential, and misled, they all said hell yes, they all are sure that she’s already on the path to getting there. And they reassured her there’s nothing wrong with you professionally, you have what it takes, you’re good and that was step number one, just reassuring herself, I have what it takes, I can actually do this.

Maya Grossman 11:56
Step number two, was to rebuild confidence. Because it’s long enough to know that you’re good at what you do, she was a marketer. So not enough to know I’m a great marketer, you also need to believe that you can actually do this and you need to have the confidence to tell a story that is very different than what happens when you get laid off, you need to remember who you were just a minute before and actually believe it, that that’s the hard part, because when you don’t believe in yourself, other people don’t believe in you, and it sounds really stupid. But it’s almost like a mirror.

Maya Grossman 12:31
When you don’t have the confidence. When you say something and you don’t actually believe it, people can see it, they can sniff it out from a mile, especially if we’re talking about hiring managers. So you need to rebuild this confidence and I’m not talking about arrogance, I’m talking about knowing deep down inside, that you know your shit, that you’re good at what you do, and that you deserve, what you’re actually going after, and a way to do this is creating a brag list. And it’s something that I have used throughout my entire career. And I still use today. And I’m not talking about a resume. And brag This is not just about your achievements at work.

Maya Grossman 13:13
This is about everything you’ve ever done in your life, that you’re proud of every obstacle that you overcame, every decision that made you proud. Everything that reminds you who you are, and what you can do.

Maya Grossman 13:28
For some people, like me, for example, putting myself through college and graduating debt free. For other people, it can be starting a family, it can be getting that first job, it can be transitioning into tech, it can be so many different things that you want a reminder that shows too.

Maya Grossman 13:45
I have done hard things before. And I will do them again. And I love this quote from Alex, her Mozi She haven’t heard the name Google him. He is an entrepreneur who made it to 100 million net worths relatively early. And he has a very unique approach.

Maya Grossman 14:00
So a lot of what he talks about is related to mindset and to hard work. He talks about confidence. He says, Don’t build confidence, build evidence, and what I mean by that is give yourself proof that you can do it.

Maya Grossman 14:16
Now most of us have it backwards. We think one day I’m going to be confident enough to go after this one day, I’ll have that ability. When in reality, it’s the other way around. You do things and that gives you confidence. And the more you do, the more confident you become.

Maya Grossman 14:35
So step number two, you want to create a practice. Look all this was a process. A lot of our conversations were up and down. We make it a little bit of a progress and then going back and that’s okay.

Maya Grossman 14:50
But this is something you want to have with you all of the time. And I actually have a breakless right now and it looks a little bit different because my breakless right now is every email, every message, and every review that I’ve ever got from clients or students. And every time that I’ve asked myself, Why don’t we start with this, this, this is so damn hard. I looked at that. And I’m reminded, this is why I’m doing it. I did hard things before. And I can do them again.

Maya Grossman 15:18
Step number three is one of the most important parts of it, and everyone wants to skip, you need to have a clear vision. So if we did a little bit of advice that where you believe in your worst, you have a little better confidence, you’re like, okay, maybe I can do this. But what is it that you want to do? And getting promoted is not enough.

Maya Grossman 15:42
You need to be extremely specific. Because it’s you not know where you’re going. Every road will lead you there, right? That was the one your life. And when we’re singing about information, a lot of people have the tendency to think fairly small, right? Even when I’m telling you, what is your vision, you have an idea in your head, and then you immediately say, well, it’s not realistic, I should probably make it a little bit smaller. And that’s the problem. Because when you start with a small vision, you get really small results.

Maya Grossman 16:13
So when we think about what we really want, I want you to go crazy, I want you to go wild, I don’t want you to be embarrassed to share while you’re thinking about this was really hard to do. Because I asked my client, she was like, I don’t know, I just want to chat. And now you know, what you actually want?

Maya Grossman 16:32
Great, then how do we get it? Well, we start with a vision, which is great. And when I asked my client, what do you want to do when she was a marketer? She said, I want to be a partner at a VC firm, very different than where she was. And I said, Okay, great. And then her answer was, but I’m probably not going to fit in, I don’t have enough money. I don’t have a background in finance. And I don’t really know anyone in this world, so they will never hire me.

Maya Grossman 17:01
So best case, five years, seven years from now, when maybe it can be an option, I should probably get an MBA. However, when it comes to having a vision, you need to turn it into something practical, we need to turn it into an action plan.

Maya Grossman 17:17
The problem is, either we don’t know what the actions are. Or we have misconceptions about what it actually takes like a client, I need an MBA, I need to be in finance, I talked to a lot of people who want to become a VP, and they think I need to be the best in the world.

Maya Grossman 17:33
I need to know this and this and that. And I need another certificate because if I’m not the best, they will never choose me. But that’s actually not how you become a VP, you don’t need to be the best. You need to be the best at one thing, and hire really good people around you. But people waste years on more certifications, and more experience when they don’t actually need it.

Maya Grossman 17:57
So how do you get validation? Because let’s be honest, looking at the corporate ladder is not going to help 95% of the time it is vague. It is general? And honestly, most of the words there don’t even make sense or you don’t know what to do with it be more strategic Austin? What is that? So you can try it out to your colleagues. But they’re kind of the competition side. And if they will give you advice. And unless you have friends or family who actually made it to this level? How would you know? And the answer is actually really, really simple.

Maya Grossman 18:32
I call it the million dollar advice. And the reason I call it the million dollar advice is because this is the amount of money it generated for people who actually use it. Go talk to people who have the job you want to have. Sounds really stupid, right? But guess what these people just went through what you’re about to go for, may know the good, the bad, ugly, they knows the right people. And they can save you so much time and energy by telling you where to spend your time. And this is exactly what my clients ended up doing.

Maya Grossman 19:04
She was a little intimidated to reach out to partners at VC firm. They were very senior. So she reached out to people who work for those partners. I was just specifically spoke to marketers. And she learned something really important. She learned. You don’t need an MBA to become a partner.

Maya Grossman 19:21
You don’t even need a background in finance. But what they really wanted was hands on experience as a VP or a C level executive. They wanted people who did the job so that they can then become a partner actually make investments and help other startup.

Maya Grossman 19:37
She was also told that none of these jobs are published that it’s always it’s through connections and she needs to know the right people in order to get there. And from there, she decided okay, that means I have to become a CEP.

Maya Grossman 19:54
Awesome, but how do we do that? And at that point, she started reaching out to other VPS, and she asked them, you know, what is it that I really need. And here’s the really important lessons that she learned that not all VPS are the same.

Maya Grossman 20:12
That if you want to be a VP for an early stage startup, that’s gonna be just a whole different than trying to be a VP at an enterprise company. And it may seem obvious, but we don’t always understand how to. And once you did all of that digging, she finally realized, where I will sit in where I have the most experience, just early stage startups.

Maya Grossman 20:32
So data is where I should go. I also want to work for VC firms. This are a way for me to do both. And the answer was Helya. And she started by reaching out to a few partners that she really wanted to work for. But she didn’t ask for a job. And she didn’t ask to become a partner. She said, I really like your community.

Maya Grossman 20:57
I would love to volunteer my time as a marketer, to see if I can help some of your startups. I guess, two of those partners said yes. And she started volunteer again, yes, you did that work for free for a couple of weeks. But that one is a part. There’s I noticed her and said we should talk.

Maya Grossman 21:14
We have an internal program that we’re launching, we’re going to help a lot of our startups with marketing consulting, are you interested, and she jumped on a call, and she thought he was gonna do it for free. And I said, Hello. And we put together a little plan. And within a couple of weeks, she started consulting inside of that VC firm. And guess what? Do you know what happens with a lot of VC firms, they have a portfolio of startups who always need to hire. And within a month, she had two job offers.

Maya Grossman 21:44
Two months later, she was an EP, while consulting on the side with a VC for the two years, well, she’ll graduate into and become a partner. And this is the same person who was told you’re not good at us to be a director. When you actually work on your mindset, you know what you want, and you figure out what it takes.

Maya Grossman 22:07
But the last step, and the most important one, you have to take action, none of this is going to happen by mistake. And my client worked. So off to get here, she had dozens of conversations to get to this point. But when she got that job, not only did you get a very nice five figure raise, she also solidified her plan.

Maya Grossman 22:32
So the next five years, she knew exactly how she’s going to get to her into dream role. Just six months after thinking PBA should be a senior manager. So that is what I wanted to bring to you today. But in order for you to take action, because that is the hardest part. A lot of people make the plan, we have big plans, we make a really pretty spreadsheet. And then how do you take action? Well, the answer is, you raise the bar.

Maya Grossman 23:01
Here’s what I mean by that. We chose to compromise and take things that are gonna have, because it’s easy, especially if you’ve been laid off, right? We just want the first job that we can find, we just want a feeling we can have a paycheck wants to get a look, if you’re struggling to put food on the table, by all means take a job. But if this is more about growing, and developing, don’t compromise, you can have your dream.

Maya Grossman 23:29
It took me seven years to become a VP of marketing. And I had this goal. And I told everyone, listen, I’m going to become the CMO of a Silicon Valley startup. At the time. I wasn’t even a director. And I was wondering all the different caught to it. And everyone said, way, be more realistic. Come on, why do you have to be so ambitious? And the answer was nothing will happen.

Maya Grossman 23:57
I didn’t give up when I was rejected 17 times trying to become a director. And I did not give up when three different applications to move to the US did not pan out. And I did not give up when I moved to California and I nearly no one and I had zero connections that no one wanted to hire me.

Maya Grossman 24:17
I did exactly what my client did here. And I figured it out. And I took action. And eight months after moving to California, I was doing the keynote as an industry expert for marketing. And I gotta leave your role after that. So I known it as possible.

Maya Grossman 24:36
Tip number one, have a vision. If your vision is big enough and compelling enough, and you can feel it and you can smell it and you can see it and you know what your life was was or Clank when you have the job you want to have, you will fight for it.

Maya Grossman 24:52
So you need a really compelling vision. And if that’s not enough, I want to give you something that has stayed with me for so many years. This is Tom Bilyeu, another entrepreneur. And what he said is, if it does not defy the laws of physics, you can do it.

Maya Grossman 25:11
So that’s my bar. And this is what I did all of my students, as you ask yourself, can I do it? Is it too much is a too big? The answer and very simple? Does it defy the laws of physics? No. Okay, up to it, go figure out how. And that is, my friends how you make the impossible possible. And it’s not just one person. And it’s not just we, another client just achieved her five year goal, these five and she wanted to jump to levels who wanted to become a car drove. And she said, it’s going to take her five years, she made a plan, she started talking to people who had the job she wanted to have. And guess what she realized, Oh, I’m kind of doing that.

Maya Grossman 25:50
Now. That gave her the confidence. So she actually applied for these roles. And five months later, she got it, instead of waiting five years, she got it after five months, it was all myself. This is what I wanted to kind of end with.

Maya Grossman 26:06
Have you noticed what we’ve been talking about today, it had nothing to do with job search. And look, if you want to get promoted with a company that you work for delayed a few more things will definitely need to talk about stakeholder about in the shed. And you’ll want to work a little bit warming your executive presence. But none of that will matter.

Maya Grossman 26:26
If you don’t have confidence, if you don’t know exactly what you want, if you don’t know what it takes. And if you’re not taking the right kind of action. Because my friends, this is what will actually allow you to make the impossible possible. This is how you get promoted from director to VP after being laid off. And I’m willing to bet that everyone who sits here on the people listening online, if you’re here, if you joined an event about getting promoted, you know, you’re ready, you know, you have what it takes, you just need to believe enough for you to actually get there.

Maya Grossman 27:06
And most of the time, you don’t need another certificate, you don’t need to spend another five years trying to earn that award, you just need to have a pie. And hopefully, you got a little bit of a direction on how to get started today. And with that, I’m just gonna say if you want to learn more, I actually write a guide every single week, it’s absolutely free, you can join my email list. And I’m gonna break down exactly what it takes.

Maya Grossman 27:35
Because I didn’t have anyone telling me this, it took seven years to make that huge jump. And this is why I do what I do today. I want to help more people, I want to help high achievers, I want to help people who loves their job, who has pride in what they do that they actually care. I want to help those people go as high as far as they want to go. And I want to make sure that you actually enjoy the journey, and you enjoy the destination. Because corporate doesn’t have to suck.

Maya Grossman 28:05
Despite everything you see on Instagram, and LinkedIn, I had a career that allowed me to grow and stretch myself and learn and travel and meet new people. And you can have to anyone can have it. The problem most of the time, we just give up too quickly, like a demo that is everyone hates their job. Everyone lives for the weekend. But you don’t have to. There’s another option, you can actually take control.

Maya Grossman 28:34
They call it be the CEO of your career. And we make your dreams a reality. And it is that simple. But that hard. And it all starts with your mindset.

Chris Villanueva 28:46
All right, everybody. One more huge round of applause for Maya Grossman. Thanks just for a little bit after or next week exercise. So feel free to come up and talk. We really want this to be engaging. And thank you so much. For those who are attending via livestream.

Chris Villanueva 29:06
We have this replaying on our YouTube if anyone wants to rewatch this at any point. So one thing that I’m going to end on before we move to the exercise is a story. A university professor posed a challenge to his students. Each of them had a balloon with their name, the balloons would fall from the ceiling and they would have five minutes to find theirs.

Chris Villanueva 29:26
If everyone found the one with their name they won, if not they lost. Although they tried with all their energy to find them. No one succeeded. The teacher put the balloons back and told that when to catch a balloon and give it to its owner. The test took less than three minutes to complete.

Chris Villanueva 29:42
The teacher finished by saying happiness is like these balloons to give each one of us looks only for our own we will never find it. But if we look for others, we will also find ours. Exactly the same happens with teamwork companies if you help others achieve with their goals others will do Sam, if you saw this on LinkedIn posted, I normally kind of like scroll past these.