Brave New Workforce

Wow, there’s a lot going on in the world today! Trip, Larry, and Anna are getting back to work as life begins to ramp up. Your lovely co-hosts have decided to take a short break while they figure out their next phase in the future of work. Until then, keep creating, keep improving, and keep embracing change. It’s the only way forward!
Key Takeaways
* Anna, Trip, and Larry have been busy!
* We’re taking a summer break to get our ducks in the row.
* Throughout this podcast we’ve talked about how there’s better days ahead, well guess what, they’re here!
* Trip is working for a 135 year old company and they are ready to embrace this new digital world. If they can do it, you can do it too.
* Big shout out to our interns AnaMichele and Brian!
* Also the BIGGEST shout out to Albie, our editor at Podfly!
* Your co-hosts will be coming back, but as life kicks back up, they want to take a step back to see what’s on the forefront of what’s next.
* Without a commute, podcasts have dropped off slightly. What’s next for the Brave New Workforce? Perhaps video format!
* Getting comfortable speaking and being on camera are critical job skills in today’s world. This podcast has helped all three of your co-hosts get better at it.
* You gotta put yourself out there. Larry shares an example of what that can do for you and your career.
* Trip brings it full circle. The Black Death.
* Whatever change comes your way, embrace it. It’s only going to get faster and faster.
* People are still going to have to work, because of that, Larry, Trip, and Anna will still be talking about the future of work.
* Thanks for listening and we’ll be back!
Resources
Thebraveworkforce.com
Bravenewcompanies.com
Email Anna: [email protected]
Follow Larry on Twitter: @Cornett
Connect with Anna: Brainminerals.co & Annachromatic.com
Quotes
“People no longer have tolerance for the old gatekeepers and the old models. It’s changing even faster than a lot of people have anticipated.” — Larry
“Ideas to leave you with, keep growing, keep watching where the puck is going.” — Trip
“People were talking about how this was going to kill the economy, it did for a little while, however so many people have used what was presented in front of them, grown from it, and shifted to a more online world.” — Anna

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bravenewworkforce.substack.com

Would you like more leverage in your career and get more opportunities without having to knock on doors? The world is opening up and it’s apparent that when it comes to the future of work, country borders are going to be less and less relevant. With remote work, it means companies are looking for the best of the best, and they’re no longer forced to look in their own backyard or for a particular zip code. Anna talks about one of her favorite things with her two co-hosts Larry and Trip, and that’s personal brand. Learn how to structure yourself in a world that just got way more competitive.
Key Takeaways
Trip is three Red Bulls in and has “resting dad face.”
We’re talking about your personal brand today and why it’s important for the future of work!
Anna tries to explain what a personal brand is, but Trip has a face.
The problem with the personal brand is that it’s such a buzzword. What IS IT really?
How do you get started with your personal brand? Anna shares some quick tips.
People often say you should start with “what you know,” but Trip believes what you know is boring! Anna disagrees.
It depends on where you are in the personal brand journey. Are you new to this? Or are you a bit seasoned? What should you be writing about? What you know vs. what you care about? Let’s break this down.
Trip started writing a “remote workforce” article, realized it was bigger than he could chew, and it ended up turning into a podcast.
Larry loves to tweet thoughts out there and see what gets engagement, and then turn that into an article.
Let’s talk about audience quality. You can talk about a wide range of topics, but make sure you’re tying them back to your core “content.”
Women’s max career earning potential hits at 40. For men, it’s 45-50. If you’re in tech, those numbers are even more dire. Ouch! Future-proofing your career becomes way more urgent now than ever before.
Don’t care about personal brand? Okay, we get it. But writing skills will still be more relevant than ever before! So many people are terrible at communicating over email. You’ll get an advantage if you can structure your thoughts in a consumable way.
Trip reads a lot of cover letters and resumes, etc. Man, have a personality for once! So many people are just saying the same thing about why they’re different.
Resources
Thebraveworkforce.com (http://thebraveworkforce.com/)
Bravenewcompanies.com (http://bravenewcompanies.com/)
Email Anna: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Follow Larry on Twitter: @Cornett (https://twitter.com/cornett)
Connect with Anna: Brainminerals.co (http://brainminerals.co/) & Annachromatic.com (http://annachromatic.com/)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bravenewworkforce.substack.com

Larry, Trip, and Anna bring on two hot-seat guests to show a real-life example of how behavioral interviewing works. This is the second time they’ve run a hot-seat session. These interviews give insight into what companies are looking for when they’re conducting a behavioral interview on a candidate, and what some of these tough questions tend to look like as they interview new prospects for a role.
Key Takeaways
Let’s do some hot seats! Tom and Flora are our victims for today’s episode.
Trip gives a bit of context to how these hot-seat sessions work, and why it’s important to perfect your interviewing skills.
Flora shares her story and how she got into UX design.
Flora shares her biggest failure.
It can be frustrating as a young candidate because you’re often not invited to the “big table.” Trip understands both perspectives.
If you are a UX designer, or whatever your position might be, it’s important to create relationships that go outside of your expertise or peer group.
A little bit about Tom and his background. He’s looking to do a career shift.
What did Tom do when he had a conflict with a peer?
Trip debriefs and shares what both hot seat participants did well, and didn’t do well.
Tell me about your proudest failure?
Larry always recommends picking a few of your “hero” stories so that it’s easier to pull them up no matter what the interviewer asks.
Rehearse your hero stories.
The goal of a behavioral interview is to identify inconsistency or consistently negative traits.
Sometimes you had a bad boss or a toxic employee, but the interview process is not the place to talk about it.
No one wants the crusader that’s telling other people how they’re wrong.
Resources
Thebraveworkforce.com
Bravenewcompanies.com
Email Anna: [email protected]
Follow Larry on Twitter: @Cornett

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bravenewworkforce.substack.com

Larry, Trip, and Anna address a common problem they’re seeing in the hiring world: Candidates getting ghosted on for no rhyme or reason. Companies and recruiters might not realize how stressful and damaging it is for a candidate to have “everything go well” and then radio silence. If you’ve been ghosted on in the past, here’s why this is happening, and your co-hosts offer advice on how you can empower yourself and prevent it from happening in the future.
Key Takeaways
Have you ever been ghosted?
Microsoft recently ghosted on a candidate. C’mon guys. You can do better.
Ghosting can be so nefarious because it could mean you didn’t get the job, it could mean you did. One of Anna’s friends got the job after a month of radio silence.
Candidates want specific feedback as to why they’re not a fit. However, the lawyers get involved and don’t want liability on their hands.
What makes a good recruiter or hiring manager?
Here’s how to get around the pesky system and the recruiter.
You need to get creative and talk to a human.
The worst thing that can happen to you is getting the job, and realizing you got scammed and the culture is toxic.
Interview past employees. Get the real scoop on what it’s like to work at a company.
Big companies are always looking for candidates, but the automatic system filters some of the best ones.
Finding the right candidate is exactly like the dating experience.
Companies are trying to be on their best behavior during the interview process, so if they’re behaving badly, that’s a bad sign. Don’t work there!
Pick your dumpster fire. No company is perfect.
Resources
Thebraveworkforce.com (http://thebraveworkforce.com/)
Bravenewcompanies.com (http://bravenewcompanies.com/)
Email Anna: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Follow Larry on Twitter: @Cornett (https://twitter.com/cornett)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bravenewworkforce.substack.com

Larry, Trip, and Anna are doing something new this week! They’re conducting their very first hot seat session with two brave candidates who are eager to understand what goes through a hiring manager’s mind and why they ask questions the way they do. At the end, your co-hosts explain some of the psychological reasons behind their questions, and they share how they also filter for bias.
Key Takeaways
Companies are employing some shady practices when it comes to hiring a new candidate. They use “psychology” but it’s not actually real psychology.
The first candidate on the hot seat is Manisha. A little bit about her and what she does.
Manisha shares a time where she had a conflict with a peer.
Trip asks Manisha what she thinks Larry and Trip were looking for in that interaction.
Meghana joins the hot seat and shares a little bit about herself.
What is Meghana’s proudest professional failure?
Meghana shares a time where she had to push back on a boss.
Trip breaks down how he was trained to interview candidates.
Larry shares why he looks for candidates with a growth mindset.
Anna emphasizes the point that you need to get good at telling stories. People remember details to the story, not necessarily facts and figures.
Manisha and Meghana share their experiences of being interviewed by other companies.
Trip shares how he noticed bias during the hiring process and why it’s important to weed that out really quickly.
Manisha got asked the question, “Tell me why we shouldn’t hire you.”
Resources
Thebraveworkforce.com (http://thebraveworkforce.com/)
Bravenewcompanies.com (http://bravenewcompanies.com/)
Email Anna: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Follow Larry on Twitter: @Cornett (https://twitter.com/cornett)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bravenewworkforce.substack.com

Larry and Trip discuss their experiences working for corporate America when it came to getting the clearance they needed to speak on stage and why they had to be very, very careful about what they said, even after they’ve left the company. These companies are very powerful and you have to be careful because they have the resources to blackball you from the industry. It seems more and more companies are trying to stifle employees’ expression; even when it’s outside of the standard working hours. What can we do?
Key Takeaways
No supervision this week! Anna is out of the office!
This week, we’re talking about breaking the law…
People in tech want a union! Companies are penalizing the people for doing this.
It’s a tricky balance. Larry shares what he learned from his media training when he was at Yahoo.
Employees at Google want to do more public speaking but because of Google’s policies, they’re unable to do so.
When Trip worked for Amazon, he had to get approval before he could do a talk. He shares how he was able to manage that.
Companies are afraid employees will say something that they shouldn’t at one of these talks.
There are so many benefits to having an employee talk on stage. At eBay, it was one of the best ways to attract new talent.
You want to retain talent? Hiding them from the public eye is not going to get you there.
Trip remembers a time where Microsoft just owned everything he did.
When you’re a designer, you’re only as good as your portfolio.
Every company wants to see a designer’s portfolio, yet these same companies also don't want their portfolio shared. It’s a catch-22.
Google employees get fired for showing Google their own biases. Lawsuit incoming?
The worst hacks happen when you get a disgruntled employee.
There are laws in place to protect whistleblowers. Don’t forget that.
Trip has personally experienced getting pushed out of a company for saying the unpopular thing.
These companies are incredibly powerful. They can blackball you and make sure you never work again.
You have to be so, so careful with what you talk about.
Larry shares his thoughts about unions.
Big companies might look sexy, but you might want to take a step back and think about what it might actually mean for you and your career.
The opportunities are charging. People are getting offers from international companies.
Trip is one of them! He started a new position and it’s international! He just got back from playing lacrosse with his son. He never could have done that at an onsite company.
Why would you hire someone you don’t trust?
For employees, go somewhere where you will grow.
Resources
Thebraveworkforce.com (http://thebraveworkforce.com/)
Bravenewcompanies.com (http://bravenewcompanies.com/)
Email Anna: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Follow Larry on Twitter: @Cornett (https://twitter.com/cornett)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bravenewworkforce.substack.com

Desmond Chan is the Vice President of Product Management at Zumigo Inc, where he is responsible for building a frictionless experience for users who want a better way of securing their accounts and transactions. Payments are still a pain point for a lot of us in the digital age as well as keeping our identity safe. As our data keeps getting stolen by companies who may practice reckless security measures, Desmond shares what he’s doing to build a safer way we can pay and transact online in this week’s episode.
Key Takeaways
Larry has a fantastic radio voice happening this week. Wow!
What’s happening in the world of deep fakes?
Trip does a quick recap on what an NFT is.
A little bit about Desmond and what he does for Zumigo!
Why use social security when we can use your phone number instead?
Larry wasn’t aware of how easy it is to get your phone hacked.
Trip keeps getting calls from the Chinese embassy.
Anna knows the struggle is real. She has a U.S. number and no institution will recognize it because she’s outside of the U.S.
Receiving international payments is the biggest problem we have today.
Anna is passionate about this. Receiving payments just doesn’t work in Costa Rica.
What kind of challenges does Desmond face when it comes to working with different cell phone providers?
We’ve all been hacked. Our information is part of the dark web.
Desmond experienced a problem where he couldn’t turn off access within his payment system. It was a nightmare.
For example, Venmo was very proud that users could publicly announce what they were spending money on. It was a default feature, but it seems very invasive to announce to the whole world you bought XYZ.
You don’t have a lot of control over how other people are using your data.
Resources
Thebraveworkforce.com (http://thebraveworkforce.com/)
Bravenewcompanies.com (http://bravenewcompanies.com/)
Email Anna: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Follow Larry on Twitter: @Cornett (https://twitter.com/cornett)
Zumigo.com (https://zumigo.com/)
Desmond on LinkedIn (LinkedIn)
Special Guest: Desmond Chan.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bravenewworkforce.substack.com

Emon Motamedi is the Founder of Florian, a community of alumni helping new students pay for school without loans and provide them with personalized mentoring to help them get ahead in their careers. Florian does more than provide student-friendly funding for tuition, they have a network of experts rooting for their students. Emon explains a bit more about what Florian does and how they're different from other competitors in the space.
Key Takeaways
Why did Emon leave Reddit to start his company, Florian?
Emon shares what Florian does and how it helps students pay for school without going into massive debt.
Florian is different compared to other student loan providers because they are tied to the outcome of the student.
How much future earnings does an alumnus pay to Florian investors?
So many students end up graduating from university and they don’t even know how to interview for a job. Florian closes that gap by providing critical mentoring skills to help students succeed after school.
How does Emon vet the students and know that they will work towards graduating with their intended degree they’re helping sponsor?
If a student wants to get out of this agreement, how can they do that?
What kinds of loans is Florian competing against in this space?
These students have a head start to get into a great career and improve their career earnings for the long haul.
As Larry’s a parent of college-aged students, he sees a direct need for this kind of service.
The sky’s the limit on the types of career paths these students can choose from.
Emon has a community of over 200 volunteers helping mentor students.
As Florian continues to grow, Emon is really excited about the future of the career development arm within his company and finding unique ways to improve this process to better help the students.
Resources
Thebraveworkforce.com (http://thebraveworkforce.com/)
Bravenewcompanies.com (http://bravenewcompanies.com/)
Email Anna: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Follow Larry on Twitter: @Cornett (https://twitter.com/cornett)
Connect with Emon: Joinflorian.com (https://www.joinflorian.com/) & LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/emotamedi/)
Special Guest: Emon Motamedi.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bravenewworkforce.substack.com

Talk is cheap, creativity is cheap, and tech is cheap. So, when everything can be replicated, copied, and shared seamlessly throughout different platforms, what’s the true value of a product? There’s a new commodity coming onto the scene where it’s bringing the concept of scarcity back into the fold, and that’s NFTs. Anna, Larry, and Trip sit down to try to understand what the heck this new thing is all about.
Key Takeaways
Your co-hosts are now on video! What!
Podcasting is such a hustle. It’s hard.
There’s nothing that can’t be pirated these days. Doesn’t that put a lot of people out of work?
With the rise of automation, what happens to the people when we reach a point where the economy will be just fine without a significant portion of the population working?
People say the pandemic broke the old-school way of working. Technically no, we broke it first with the invention of the internet.
What’s the deal with NFTs (Non-Fungible Token)?
Blockchain has introduced the concept of scarcity in a digital world where anything can be copied and replicated for free.
How are musicians making their money now? By touring and selling merch.
On the NFT platform, an artist just made $4 million in sales in 9 minutes.
Trip doesn’t get it. Why would you want to buy digital art?
Here’s why companies should be scared. Artists don’t need a gatekeeper anymore.
The famous entrepreneur Gary V is excited about NFTs. Here’s why.
How do people behave in a digital world vs. the real world?
VC firms are betting on the future of sports players. If they win, they get a percentage of their contract earnings.
NFTs are an interesting space that all three co-hosts are interested to see where it goes.
Resources
Thebraveworkforce.com (http://thebraveworkforce.com/)
Bravenewcompanies.com (http://bravenewcompanies.com/)
Email Anna: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Follow Larry on Twitter: @Cornett (https://twitter.com/cornett)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bravenewworkforce.substack.com

Wow. How is everyone feeling lately? Things just seem to be a bit more sluggish than they were a year ago. Your three special co-hosts discuss what’s going on and how we can step up and take better care of ourselves, our families, and even our team at work. Today’s topic is mental health and burnout!
Key Takeaways
Your co-hosts are distracted today!
Trip takes over on Anna’s lead-in… It’s been a year since lockdown.
It’s been a terrible year for all of us, and it’s getting long.
How are you doing? Like really?
Trip has been incredibly overworked and is struggling with insomnia.
Anna is struggling with her mental health. It’s tough!
She’s going crazy. The positive is that she is using her new-found madness to write more creative stuff.
Larry says Anna isn’t alone. People are feeling worse than ever.
Trip decided to show up slightly differently at work today. He wanted to focus on how everyone was really doing.
How can people be healthier with all of this isolation going on?
People are feeling isolated, so what they end up doing is throw more meetings on the calendar to try and feel more connected. It’s a bad cycle.
How is Anna adapting as a solopreneur in isolation?
Although Larry is leaning into social media, Trip has decided to stay away from social media.
Nobody is our best selves right now. The entire society is having a terrible time.
Trip understands we need to connect more as a team, but he doesn’t want to have “mandatory fun” at the office, either.
The people you’d meet at the bar or while you’re doing your daily walk, these “acquaintances/strangers” are no longer there in your life, and people still need that familiarity.
Women are leaving the workforce in droves.
Why are women leaving the workforce?
Work will take all of your time and never say sorry.
Larry talks about the importance of asynchronous work.
How do you prevent roadblocks from happening when you need to collaborate?
People need to set better boundaries.
Trip is putting his foot down with his team. No more invisible work!
It was a different time back then. It was common/expected to take business calls when your wife was in the delivery room. Trip had to do it.
We need to revisit how we do work because people are burning out.
We’re having a crisis in innovation.
We have nine followers on Twitter. Thanks to our nine moms! Follow us on there.
Resources
Thebraveworkforce.com (http://thebraveworkforce.com/)
Bravenewcompanies.com (http://bravenewcompanies.com/)
Email Anna: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Follow Larry on Twitter: @Cornett (https://twitter.com/cornett)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bravenewworkforce.substack.com