Welcome to the Get a Six Figure Job You Love podcast. Oh, and thrive. Can’t forget that part. This is about not just surviving, but thriving. And that’s actually what I want to talk about today on this episode. So stay tuned. Hello, hello, I am up early at 5 a.m. this morning,  recording this podcast  and I’m kind of like, I don’t even know what’s going to come out of me because I’m going to just riff it. I’ve got a plan, a rough plan, but I don’t  plan everything word for word.  So here’s what I’ve got. And I was kind of thinking, I don’t know how this is going to come out. It might sound a little bit triggering for some people or it might,  you know, I don’t know how it’s going to land. So I was thinking, I don’t even know if I want to. this out but we’ll see how it goes. Okay so here’s what I want to talk about today is this whole  I have no choice thing.  I’ve been seeing a lot  of posts on LinkedIn and I know you all have too been seeing these posts  but a few a few have popped up just recently about being overqualified. People are saying take my application seriously I know I’m overqualified but I need the job you know I need to keep the lights on and  And so I am serious about this job and I will work really hard in this job,  you know, a lot of like I’ve seen literally two or three posts, people defending  that you should be allowed, you should be  valid and considered for jobs.  like way overqualified for because of these reasons. And the comments just blow up and people are like, yeah, that’s true. Like in this market, you need to take what you can get. And  I’m like all this stuff. And it’s kind of like the opposite of what  like what what I stand for and what works in my world. And so I just want to make  this  point. I’ve thought of a way to drive this point home. And it’s it starts with this. You think  or the people who are applying for jobs they’re really, really overqualified for.  They think that that is their only option or one of their only options, right? Because that’s what they see. They saw that job, it came across their  desk, they have their attention on it. So they think that is  one of their only choices or that’s the choice that’s there. So they put time and effort into applying for it. And then  they think that the problem then is outside of them because the people who are hiring for that job then don’t want to hire someone who’s overqualified because they have all these concerns.  Concerns being like, well, they’re going to get bored as soon as they get something better, they’re going to leave.  They’re not really going to be satisfied or fulfilled here. They’re just taking something for now.  And  like these concerns are valid, right? Like that, because I’m thinking if you really are overqualified for a job, you’re saying no no no but I do want it and I will work really hard and I will be really grateful for it and I will just take whatever I can get  like it’s because you are operating from a small  window of possibility for yourself right and I know that  the argument is like oh but you haven’t seen it out there blah blah blah like it’s really tough out there and people are having a really hard time getting anything  like that’s the narrative that everybody has bought into  That narrative is what keeps everybody and the narrative grows and it spreads and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.  Right.  But because I’m I’m on the other side of this and I’m seeing like these people.  I just interviewed someone yesterday and she’s like she’s like, yeah, she’s like, that’s  you just can’t keep looking at all that stuff all the time. You can’t just sit there and stare at it.  And she went on to get a job that was 75 percent higher than her previous. right in another state, like she’s moving and she’s getting this job in another state. So they didn’t even take the local candidate. They hired her over that.  So this I’m just talking to a client who just  went through my program and overcame a lot of obstacles  to get to this next place in her life.  And she could have easily and she was like when she on one of our first sessions, she was like thinking, oh, this is so bad. This market is so terrible.  I should just be applying for these really low paying positions because that looks like all there is available. That looks like all there is, right?  And so I can tell you for those who want to hear it, that that’s not true. That’s not all there is. And it never will be all there is. There’s always more.  And this is an abundant mindset that we need to take on  because most people are going to go into the scarcity mindset. They’re going to go into  there isn’t enough for everybody. Jobs are really scarce. Opportunities are really scarce. Money’s really scarce. Budgets are really scarce.  And when you think like that, you will be clinging on to every little tiny scrap of every little tiny possibility that you could get, even if it’s really not what you want. Because let’s be honest,  if you’re really, really overqualified and you could  get a job that, you know, used what you have and, you know,  you could actually feel challenged and fulfilled and stimulated and be paid. And like if you could have  the boxes you want to check, you would  you would take that choice, right? Versus the oh, I’m going to go for a lower level.  Like people will say they’ll justify and say, oh, well, it’s less responsibility. I don’t want the stress. I just want a paycheck. just want  like,  but let’s be honest, if someone else did come along like  and offer you a way better paying job that utilized your skills, that gave you more money  and you had accepted that lower paying job  or the one you’re overqualified for, if you’d already accepted that and then someone came and offered you something way better that you were more  like you were more aligned with  like. let’s be honest, you’re going to consider taking it. You might feel bad, but you’re probably going to take it, right?  Because that is ultimately what you want.  So I kind of disagree with this narrative of like, we should give all these people a chance or overqualified. I’m like, think the people who are overqualified need to get better at communicating their value and skill.  And that is the problem, which I will get into.  So  what people think is a problem is that other people are not giving them a chance, right? They think, oh, well, they’re not giving me a chance for  the why I said they think I’m gonna leave, they think I’m gonna get bored, and it’s like, well, I just want a job, so I won’t get bored and I won’t leave, right? But we don’t actually know that, right? Like,  given the choice, you probably would, and I don’t blame you, right?  So their concerns are valid, like they’re really valid.  And so what they think the solution is is to post on LinkedIn and complain about it and say, hey, give me a chance because… this is real, I do need this and I do want this and like to fight against it, right? They think that the solution is to  fight and say,  know, fight for like a lower thing, like fight for, they’re basically fighting for their limitation. They’re putting time and energy into fighting for something  that they have convinced themselves they want for survival, but don’t really actually want. Like you didn’t go.  and get all that experience or those qualifications or get really good at what you do just to take something you’re under qualified for, just to say, oh, I just did it so I could pay the bills. Right.  But you didn’t do that. Like that wasn’t your plan. Right.  Now, external circumstances, the news, the headlines and all that has gotten into your head. And now you’re you’re now  parroting that narrative back saying, oh, no, no, but I do need this. I do need this. Right. And like, no disrespect, no judgment.  I was afraid to say this, but that’s why I had to say it. Right.  Is.  That is not who you really wanna be, but you have shrunk.  Like the market has devalued you and you have believed that that’s your only choice, right?  So what people  do to try to solve it is they  will post on LinkedIn. They might keep trying to apply for these jobs. They might try to make their applications more convincing or, you  and they might  honestly believe like, hey, they’d be lucky to have me. Like they should want someone who’s overqualified, right?  But. in their mind, it’s like they’re thinking, like they don’t need to buy, to buy like a really expensive thing when they just want, you know, they just want like the basic version, right? Like,  and so it’s like, it’s valid for the employers to think, you know, this person is way overqualified, they do deserve more money, they’re probably not a right fit here,  they probably are going to get bored and they’re probably are going to want something else. Like that’s true. All of that is true. And so the market shouldn’t be like the deciding factor of why you keep arguing for a limitation. It just shouldn’t.  Right.  So  what people try to do is they try to either convince more or try to tailor the way that they they they talk about how they like the reasons why they do want it, the reasons why they should be hired  instead of putting that time and energy into  the reasons why they would actually contribute monetary value to a company where they can actually use their skills, do what they actually want to be doing  and get better at sharing that information with the people who actually really need that. They’re not putting energy into that. They’re putting energy into the jobs who are they’re overqualified for that people actually don’t want to hire them for for good reason.  And so  the results that are created from that is you end up getting  deeper into the whole of This market is terrible, right? Like you prove to yourself that that is true, right? The market is so bad. I can’t even get this, you know, job I’m overqualified for. I can’t even get lower paying jobs.  So how am I supposed to get higher paying jobs? Right.  And that’s what you end up thinking. And then you end up spiraling and end up feeling hopeless and thinking like that’s  just the way it is.  So here’s what I’m proposing is the actual problem. The actual problem. is that you  are lowering your bar too much.  Okay. Then maybe that’s  like  you might think, oh yeah, I tried hiring it and I tried that and it didn’t work. But then  it’s like, well, if you tried that and it didn’t work for how long did you try? How many things did you try it? Like you obviously gave up because now you’re applying for jobs where you’re  overqualified and you’re getting rejected for overqualified jobs. If this is you, right?  Or if you’ve had the thought, right? Because I’ve  A lot of people’s brains are going desperate. Like that’s what I’m calling it. I’m saying their brains are going desperate. I don’t think you are desperate.  I don’t think in this day and age, like we need to actually be desperate. Like you’re physically not going to die. Like you’ll figure, you will figure it out. You will pay your bills. You will always do that. You have always done that, right?  So I’m not feeling bad for you.  And I’m sorry, cause I’m not the coach that’s going to feel bad for you. I’m the coach who’s going to say, Hey, I know you can. I know you can figure this out,  like, and I will fight for you figuring it out.  I won’t fight for, you know, your limitations and I won’t agree with you that you have to take really low paying jobs like I’ll never do that.  And  it can land because this is,  you know, the standards that I’ve held. And like, I know I’ve been there. I’ve I’ve  lived this as well.  So  when you see those things and you see yourself, you see your brain going into that mode of like, oh, but I need to just take whatever and I need to do this and I need to this.  Like that isn’t working either.  And but you tell yourself, oh, well, I tried the hire and it didn’t work. Right. But I tried to get the higher paying jobs and I tried to, you know, maybe you tried interviewing for a few higher paying jobs or maybe you you  applied for some stretch rolls and you didn’t get them. And so then your brain said, OK, well, immediately I might I need to shrink and go lower and go for less.   Right.  And then, of course, the market really encourages this. All the posts you see really encourage this. The news really encourages this. So then that’s what you do. Right.  And then that doesn’t work either. And then you start to feel really worthless. Then you’re then your mind’s like, well, I can’t even get this low paying job. I can’t even do this. Like, what does that mean? Like, I’m just useless. Like,  like then it spirals into the worst. Right.  And here’s the thing. It’s just because you went from trying to solve a high quality problem, which was OK. How do I get, you know, a 200K job or  like whatever the number you had in mind originally was.  How do I get that job? How do I  learn how to communicate the value that I would bring in that job? How do I learn how to communicate that I will be that I’ll be contributing  at least  400K worth of value when I want to be paid  200K? How do I work on that problem? How do I solve that?  How do I solve for that?  You went from  like not doing that at all to going to, OK, well, how do I just get anything? Right.  And then that was your brain going desperate. And then that started repelling. you like you kind of inadvertently turned into a version of yourself that you don’t like. mean,  for me, I don’t like that version of myself when I go desperate  or when my brain goes desperate. I don’t like that version of myself. It’s basically like saying, hey,  you can’t do any better. So you just better do whatever you can to survive.  And you. Like it’s not going to be great, but you know, you just got to do what you got to do. And like that  that I don’t like the version of myself that shows up when I’m do when I’m in that space. Right. Like I want the version of myself who’s like, no, I’m going to challenge myself. It’s going to be hard anyway. I’m going to do  I’m going to go for what I want it and I’m going to get it. Right.  And that is hard. Right. It’s because the brain wants to do what’s easiest. It wants to fall into the easiest possible.  Like it wants to solve the easiest possible problem. And so your brain thinks that that’s an easy problem. easier problem to solve is like, I’ll just take anything. I’ll just get whatever. I’ll just take a service job. I’ll just take  whatever. Right. And then  if you can’t get that,  then your brain starts to then say to then respond with like, well, you just can’t get anything. It’s hopeless. It’s impossible. There’s nothing you can do anything. Right.  And then you spiral and then  your confidence gets beaten down. And the longer that you stay in that space,  trying to get these low, you know, trying to just get these low paying positions. you start to feel crappier and crappier and crappier and you spiral and that’s what’s happening with people, right?  So unless your mind is managed, unless you learn how to manage your mind,  you learn how to bring yourself  back to where you wanna be  and remind yourself of who you wanna be in these situations where they are  not easy, challenging situations,  you’ve gotta bring yourself back to who you actually want to be,  the identity of the person who. You know, and I know it’s in there. Everybody I coach has a story of how they did something  that was incredible and they forgot about it, don’t know how to channel that.  But also there’s skills involved that you don’t have because this market requires skills  that a lot of people haven’t learned. Right. So value creation and value communication skills. Like  you have to be somebody who has created value and you have to know how to communicate it.  And you. You have to be able to know exactly why you need to be paid the amount that you’re asking to be paid, the exact return on the investment that someone’s gonna get. Like you have to know that, right? And many people don’t know that. They just wing it. They go into the interview, they try to get the answers right. They don’t get the answers quote unquote right. The things don’t land. They don’t know who they’re speaking to. They don’t know how to talk to people. They just  kind of. do their best thinking, you know, that’s enough because it was enough 20 years ago. And then when it doesn’t work easily, they say, oh, well, this market is just impossible. There’s just too much competition. I just can’t  compete with these people. Right.  And so that is like  it’s harder. Yeah. But it’s  we’re going to require different skills of you, different problem solving, different focus, a different attention.  Like you’re going to have to pay attention to different things.  So.   The alternative solution is to  learn how learn the skill of communicating your value better, right? Learn learn the skill to answer the  really hard questions that they’re not asking but they need to know  and Like if someone asks you right now, like okay  say you’re asking for a job. That’s a hundred K or 200 K Let’s say that you want to get paid that much and someone asks you. Okay.  Well Why should we pay you that much versus this other person or why should we pay you that much when the job is only?  listed as 80 or why should we pay you that much? If you can’t answer that exactly in detail  and you don’t know enough about the company to answer that exactly in detail and feel confident with your answer,  then you have not scratched the surface of doing the work of what it’s going to take to communicate your value.  OK, now this might be harsh to hear because  people are like, it’s easier and it’s more, you know, it makes it makes sense to just blame the market, to just blame the people for not giving you a chance for not  you for not understanding you, for not just seeing your value, for not just having your work speak for itself on your resume. Like that isn’t the way that it works. Right. And it never was. But it was a lot easier because people didn’t need so much, you know, proof or they didn’t need so much, you know, data like. And in my program, I talk about four different types of decision makers, how they each think, what they each need to hear. And the way that you need to communicate your value is a whole thing that you probably haven’t dug into like most people haven’t they’re just if you’re going to interviews just winging it asking like trying to answer the questions  practicing scripts trying to get the answers quote unquote right  like you don’t know what the right answer will be because you you don’t know enough about the company to know exactly what they need to hear  and i teach you how to do that through asking questions throughout the interview  but This is the actual problem. it’s like, I couldn’t think of like a nice way to say it, but it’s like people are blaming the market when truly it’s not that the market is at fault, even though, the market is harder. I’m not denying that it is more challenging, but it’s like you can’t you haven’t learned how to communicate your value effectively. You haven’t learned how to put numbers to your value. You haven’t learned how to put numbers to your soft skills. You haven’t learned how what you’ve done has actually made a difference and an impact.  You haven’t learned how to focus on that and communicate that and put attention on that and refine how you communicate that really, really well. You haven’t learned to do that yet.  So  it’s easier when you don’t do that to just say, oh, it’s the market. There’s too much competition. It’s just impossible. Right.  And there are new skills that are required now, and  that’s just not optional anymore. And so it had to be said.  So why it works better. when you are able when you are in the space of like I am communicating my value, I’m to learn my value, I’m going to communicate my value.  I most people don’t like  I have clients who forget about the things they’ve done, right? Like they forget and then they’re like, oh, yeah, I did that. Oh, yeah. And like  or they just think that like  it’s like the nonchalant comments like.  One of my clients he he thought he really hadn’t done a lot in his previous job. He’s like, yeah, I didn’t really do that much  I just put together some PowerPoint presentations, right  and like  if that’s his real belief like he put together some PowerPoint presentations The way that he goes to present at a new interview or the way he goes to talk to the people in a new for a new role for a new opportunity  no matter what he says, it’s not going to come from a very value heavy place because he doesn’t believe he communicate or he created value. He thinks he just put some power points together. Right. And the truth is that wasn’t the truth at all. When we dug into it, he was an instructional designer. He had created courses for a large organization that the organization was now using. The courses were thorough. They were well done. People were being educated like. There was a whole overhaul of what he had done  and his brain  for one reason or another. I think it’s because he didn’t get to talk to all the subject matter experts that he thought he was supposed to. Like he didn’t do  as good enough of a job as he would have liked to or something.  And he his brain just said, well, we just kind of put the power points together. Right.  Not true. Like  so after that overhaul of  like everything that he did,  he ended up getting the job.  I believe he got a uh government job. And  he he didn’t see it before. Right. He didn’t see how he was actually thinking about it and how he needed to actually think about it in order to like dig in, dissect it and say, oh, yeah, OK. So this is having an impact over here. This did have an impact on this many people. Blah, blah. Right.  So  it’s really not something you can gloss over and just be like, oh, yeah, I just did my job. I just  did some PowerPoints. I just made some videos. I just did this. I just did that. Right. And that’s what a lot of people do. That’s one of the problems. Right.  And so when I coach people, I dissect all these problems and I catch them and I stop them in their tracks and I go, wait. And  that is not something you will be doing for yourself. You just won’t be right. So it’s a blind spot.  Your value  is likely a blind spot.  And I can tell you that because if you’re not  getting offers if you’re not getting solid offers people are not interested in working with you they’re not interested in calling you back or keeping you updated  like  then you haven’t done a clear or good enough job of presenting your value  so you can’t blame external circumstances for that that is within you okay  so  it just works better proven over and over again and it’s not something that we can get away from now we can’t just pretend like we can keep interviewing in the same way and it’s just going to work the same way as it did  several years ago. I don’t know how many years ago, but it doesn’t. OK,  so  there we have it.  If you are one of those people who believes the market is terrible,  who believes it’s impossible, who has  maybe tried applying for the jobs you were qualified for and it didn’t work and then you started trying to apply for lower level positions because you thought that’s what that was going to be easier.  Or maybe you haven’t been seeing high level positions or  like whatever your brain is telling you  that is out of your control because these things are out of your control, like like the market or the competition or like those things are not within your control.  Then you have to bring the problem back into something you directly control  and you directly control how you like what you put your attention,  what you put your attention on day to day in your job hunt. So if you spend, you know, an hour, two hours applying for an opportunity that you’re under qualified for, and then you get upset because they didn’t give you a serious chance, right?  That is on you,  right? And it’s not their fault for not giving you a chance,  right? They were bombarded with a bunch of other overqualified people too. Like nobody owes you that. You owe to yourself to go after something that is significant to you, that’s gonna pay you for your skills. And  you owe it to yourself to believe that or learn how to believe that.  And  sometimes it’s hard, especially when we hear all these messages. So you need to get in a space  where you can actually see that that’s happening. People are winning. People are, you know, doing that.  Listen to some of the success interviews that I have coming up on the podcast and hear hear it from people talking about it, who have done it  and build evidence in your brain for, hey, this is this is Like I know people don’t like it when I say when they when someone tells them it’s all in their head or whatever. And like, I’m not saying that it is harder, but I’m saying  because it’s harder,  you have to get smarter about it. You can’t just do what everyone else is doing, which is, you know, just answering the questions, trying to get it right.  Scripted answers, trying to get  trying to guess at what they want to hear.  Keep applying for things you’re overqualified for. uh complain when you don’t get a response. Like you can’t keep doing that if you want to succeed. I you can keep doing that if you want to, but  don’t complain about the same results happening all the time. Okay.  Okay. So that’s it.  I’m going to, I’m going to sign off now. It’s time to go wake up my daughter.  Cause I got to take her to take care. So thanks for listening. And I do have a training.  I’m doing the training today. So this podcast won’t come out  until after the training has already been recorded.  but it’s called how to value yourself and finally get paid what you deserve in 2026 and I will leave that training  up and available for you to watch  and in that training I’m going deeper into this I’m talking about you know the thought errors that people have the common reasons why people are doing this  and a little bit more about what we talked about today so if you like this topic if this helped you  then come to that training we’ll put it in the show notes