Welcome to the Get a 6-Figure Job You Love  podcast. I’m your host Natalie Fisher. I’m a certified career mindset coach who also happens to love dogs, lattes, and most importantly skipping the small talk and getting right to the conversations that matter. On this podcast, I will coach you on how to use your brain to build a wildly successful career and make a real impact in your industry. If you want to do more than just work for a living, you’ve got to start by making the right decisions now. Are you ready? Let’s go.

Hello. And today we’re going to be playing an interview with one of my past clients, Matthew Rhon. And in this interview Matthew talks about how he came to me having been just laid off from a job that wasn’t a good fit for him. And it was really interesting timing because he’d just gotten into a situation here he really could have panicked and a lot of people would have in this situation. Where he had just lost a job, he had been laid off after having moved into a new apartment and taken on a lot more expense.

And he could have panicked and gone into a spiral and had things go in the opposite direction. But instead, he realized right away that he needed to take this action. And so he created a situation where he was going to be successful no matter what. So he made the investment of working with me in order to guarantee that he would come back even stronger. And that him being laid off from this position was just the beginning of a great career ahead for him.

And so he went from working in the aerospace engineering industry into a medical device company where he was able to transfer his education and skills. And being laid off at the previous position wasn’t a factor that impeded him, which a lot of people think that that’s a problem and that they’re going to be held back from that. So Matthew’s a great example of how you can turn around in a situation that seems like it’s going to be really difficult. But with his thought process and how he decided to consciously approach the situation he was able to see success very, very quickly.

And he had a choice here to panic and go into a place of oh my God, what happens if I don’t get a better job soon? What happens, my bills are going to pile up, my finances, I have all this more responsibility now. That’s where most people’s brains are going to go and that is a choice. And so there’s an example that I like to talk about. And as humans we often want to look at the wall that we’re going to hit.

So if we’re driving and all of a sudden we realize we’re going to hit a wall, we’re looking at the wall, say our hands are on the steering wheel and we’re staring at the wall. We’re literally just staring at the wall. And our brain doesn’t in that moment consciously decide, which we do have the option to do, by the way, to actually steer your hands away from the wall. And when you steer your hands away from the wall you don’t hit the wall because your head automatically goes to look away from the wall as well and you make a turn and you don’t actually hit the wall.

But on default, we just look at the wall and then we’d hit it, which is what most people do. So in this situation what looking at the wall means is you’re looking at your bills. You’re looking at the fact that you might not be able to pay your rent. You might not be able to afford your current lifestyle. You might not, you might not. What if it doesn’t work? That’s looking at the wall.

And so what coaching is, is it takes you away from that and steers you in the direction that you need to go on a consistent basis so that you’re not staring at the wall. So we talk about his thought processes and how he steered himself away from not looking at the wall and this completely enabled him to not hit it. And in this interview we look at his thought process, what he was thinking in order to make such a quick turnaround with the situation and how he succeeded at this.

And we filmed it a while back and he recently also just sent me a message which I’ll update. It’s kind of cool because this is an old interview, but this is his update too that I can read to you. And he says, “Hi Natalie, just wanted to check in. Hope you’re doing well. Thanks again for all the help through your programs and your coaching, things have been going really great at work. They’re even grooming me for a managerial position. Wishing you the best, have a great day. Best regards, Matthew.”

So he just took this and used the momentum to continue on with the success in his career. And I think that one of the key things that he did, and you’ll hear him talk about it is that he didn’t have time to look at the wall. That’s how he thought about it. But a lot of the times that’s what we’re doing and we don’t know that we have a choice.

So love this interview, really glad to share it with you guys and without further ado here is Matthew.

Well, I’m here with Matthew today and we’re going to discuss his success story, your success story. So I’d like to start with asking you, where was your life at before we started working together?

Matthew: Hi. Well, before we started working together I was employed at a job which I now realize was just not a good fit. And a lot of things were going on in my life. I was just moving to a new apartment, my girlfriend and then the job just didn’t end up working out. And I unfortunately lost my job, but I knew that I had already taken on so much more responsibility that I needed to get things on track. Just because I wasn’t going to let that stop me from advancing to my life and throwing away all the hard work I had put before that point to get to where I am now.

Natalie: Absolutely. Yeah, so you did talk to me about that quite a bit, about how that job was not a good fit for you. So tell me a bit about where you are now, so very exciting times for you right now.

Matthew: Yeah. So it’s great, I got a degree in aerospace engineering. And the previous job I was at was in the aerospace industry. But it wasn’t – like I was saying before it was not a right fit. And then this opportunity came along to work in the medical device field working as a product development engineer within that company. And I’ve always been someone who’s been passionate about helping people and to get the chance to work on something that could be used to help someone’s life. Rather than just working on luxury goods that people may or may not even care about. That was the main motivation for me wanting to go after this opportunity.

Natalie: Awesome. So why do you think they hired you specifically? I mean they probably had other candidates that had more experience than you did, especially in the medical device field. So what do you think are some factors that made them specifically choose you?

Matthew: Yeah. From what the job description and everything was looking for, they were looking for someone who had experience in a heavily regulated field. Whereas it was in aerospace and not in the medical field, it’s still heavily regulated. The FAA and FDA are both insane when it comes to that kind of thing. So they liked that I already had that kind of experience.

But then I think what sold them on me was just the passion I put forth with them, showing them that I actually want to help people, helping people is my priority. And I feel in the medical field that has to be a main plus that they’re looking for.

Natalie: Absolutely. And that’s one of the keys that I work with people on a lot is to be focused on helping them versus focused on themselves. So when you can make that shift to focusing on how you really want to help them out then you can be a lot more successful. And I think you did that really well. So awesome, well, congratulations. I’m really excited for you.

Matthew: Thank you.

Natalie: So I know that you and your girlfriend had both followed me on YouTube for quite a while, so when we chatted, you kind of already knew me a bit. I didn’t know you yet. But what were your hesitations about working with me, if any?

Matthew: Yeah. Well, I guess the only thing was is I had only really known you through the videos and everything. And everything that you were offering, and all the services, and just the advice, sometimes all that whole mentality, like something could be too good to be true kind of thing, that was really the only reservation I had. But after we had that one-on-one meeting and everything where you discussed everything with me, I could tell, you were very frank, very earnest.

It wasn’t a show you were putting up for your videos. This is how you are in person one-on-one. And then that’s really what sold me on wanting to work alongside you for the program.

Natalie: Thank you. Thank you so much, that’s really great feedback to get. Thank you. So after you decided to sign up how was your experience going through the process and working on this?

Matthew: Yeah. It was definitely something new in that I had never really done before. I had seen your videos and everything on how to go about doing it. But just actually figuring it out on my own, I could tell I needed some direction in there, which I definitely got out of your program. And then just because I have had experience in my personal life, doing personal training or something when I thought I had all the answers, but I wasn’t getting the results I wanted.

Knowing that you have a good trainer, you follow the process correctly, you get the results. So I just shifted my mentality into thinking about that in my professional life and attack the entire coursework with that same kind of mentality.

Natalie: Yeah, you really did. And so you went through pretty much the whole program. I know that you were – you came to our calls and you were prepared and you were talking about all of the information that you learned. What do you think was the main benefit that you got out of our work together?

Matthew: I feel like it was just the accountability and knowing that we had the weekly meetings, but I could still reach out to you, if anything would happen. And yes, it most definitely was useful, as the time went on we were working together and then all my results started pouring in. Because I remember at first I’m just putting out the feelers and everything, getting like, you know, stepping a little bit into the process, sending things out.

Then there was nothing for the first week and a half and all of a sudden before we had our other meeting, I just got slammed with all these interview requests, alumni connections. And I’m like, “Where did all of this come from?” This was something I was not used to at all.

Natalie: Yeah, I remember that. And I remember you had trouble scheduling one person, and then another person wanted to talk at the same time. And I was like, “That’s a good problem to have.”

Matthew: Yes, all those quality problems as you like to call them.

Natalie: Yeah. So that was really awesome to see. And so if you were to review what you’ve learned so far and write your own success story, how would it go, briefly?

Matthew: Yeah. So I guess my own success story would be that I went through everything in university. I learned the things I needed to learn to succeed. I just needed to have more confidence in myself and be very open to criticism and training. And find someone that would help me, help guide me along the path I wanted to go. And I feel that’s kind of what I ended up doing.

I just said, “You know what, I’m just going leave my ego out there, be very coachable, go with someone that I trust, that their system will get me the results I need. Go through it all and just keep a good attitude throughout the whole thing.” And that’s exactly what happened.

Natalie: Yeah, awesome. And something else I noticed about you was you decided – you were very decisive right away. You were like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” Do you think that in other parts of your life that you’ve seen that be successful for you, your decisiveness?

Matthew: Yes. Throughout my entire life I was the one out of my group of friends saying, “Let’s go do this. Let’s go do that.” Because everyone would always want to be doing thing or another and I’m like, “Yeah. No, I’m not having it.” So I would be always be the one like, “Okay, this is what we’re trying to do. We can do this, this and that. If we do it this way or if we start doing it now we’ll hit everything and everyone wins.”

Natalie: Yeah, always kind of putting together a plan in your head and knowing where you were going to end up?

Matthew: Yeah. And that’s – I’ve just always been comfortable with that because I’ve just dealt with that my entire life, but then definitely working alongside you I found how I can apply that in my professional life.  And take these skills that apparently I had always had, I just didn’t know I had. And then know that I can apply them in this way.

Natalie: Absolutely. So what do you think were your main learnings from the process as far as opportunities, and interviews, and basically what the program goes through, what would be your main learnings from the process?

Matthew: Yeah. It’s more of like, I had an idea of the things that needed to be changed, but it was like no formal feedback really on yeah, these are definitely the things I should be thinking about things differently. I should go about these other things differently because I can definitely see the shift in my mindset over the years from when I started the job hunt a few years back to where I am now. Especially in the perspective that you put it on, you want to be very selfless, you want to be very giving, showing how you can help them.

I can definitely say my thought process when I first started was just the same typical I did this work, I deserve to be here. And you deserve like, you know, like I was always like what they deserve is what I wanted from them, what they should be giving me.

Natalie: Yeah, exactly. And then when you got to focus that on them then you ultimately get what you want?

Matthew: Yes. And then just flipping that switch and then being pretty much just my more authentic self. And not feeling that I am owed anything, like your checklist on what to expect from an interview and what you shouldn’t be expecting at all. That definitely helped put things in perspective, just like you want to connect with a company that you can work alongside them. That they can help you grow, you can help them grow. It’s like it’s a mutually beneficial relationship.

You don’t want to be in a job or industry where it’s parasitic. They want everything from you and give you nothing in return.

Natalie: Yeah, for sure, and that’s something that you kept your eye on and got a great result from it. So all together how long did it take you to get your job since we started to now?

Matthew: Yeah. So from when we started, that was towards the beginning of April and then, yeah, my first day was just this past Monday. But then through the job interviews and everything, I got confirmation a couple of weeks back. So it was just about a little less than two months.

Natalie: Yeah, so you went through pretty quick. And like you said, it was a bit of a slow start, but then it all started coming together. And yeah, so for your new job, tell me what you love about it so far. I know you’ve only been there for a week.

Matthew: Well, I just love how open the communication is for everyone, not just in my department but across all the departments. HR is very responsive to your needs and concerns. The managers gets you the things that you need. It doesn’t just get laid off to the wayside and just waiting to get done. And they put a heavy emphasis on training and making sure you’re comfortable with the work before moving you forward.

They take your comfort of great importance, they invest a lot into their employees. That’s what I’ve been seeing too, especially since, they even believe in continuing education for their employees. If you want to learn something new that will benefit the company, they’ll be allowed to foot the bill for that.

And then kind of like company culture, company environment that I wanted to be a part of, that’s more personal, more kind of like a family where everyone’s trying to help each other out. Rather than you’re a drone, you’re just a number, they just care about your results. They don’t care about who you are as a person. They just want you to get your things done and just not do anything else really.

Natalie: Yeah, absolutely. That’s amazing, so yeah, I’m really excited for you in your new position and what you’re going to be able to accomplish. And then I just have one last question. What advice would you give to someone who was in your position, where they’re at right now in the job hunt or in a job that they don’t love? What advice would you give them to move forward to really get to where you are now?

Matthew: Yeah. I would say the biggest change is because I realized working alongside you is not that I lacked the knowledge to change things I wanted to do. It was just my attitude and my way of thinking of things is what needed to be changed. And once I made that decision to okay, stop seeing the negative side of things if they weren’t going to be useful to me, and start seeing them in a positive light. That’s when everything became – I was just more receptive to everything and then I was getting the results I wanted.

I had lost my job, even though I’d just gotten this apartment and everything, but then I’m thinking a bit like oh. It gave me the opportunity to get my own space. And live with my girlfriend and have a stepping stone in the right direction of the lifestyle I want to live. So despite the issues with that, it got to me where I am now.

Natalie: Absolutely. And one important thing that I haven’t talked about yet is somebody else in that situation who had just lost their job and had this apartment that they had to pay for, had responsibilities. They would potentially freak out. I’ve seen it a lot. They’d be like, “Oh my God, I have no money. And I’m not going to have an income, what’s going to happen to me?” So you approached that differently, didn’t you? You just mentioned it a bit. And so because of that I feel like that’s why you were able to get your results so quickly.

So why did you approach it differently versus going to where most people go, which is oh my God, I’ve lost my job, what am I going to do?

Matthew: Yeah. In all honesty, I don’t know if it’s the most healthy way to approach it. But I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself with that. I have real obligations, I have real bills, I have real everything I needed to pay. And then everything just got all of a sudden much more real. I didn’t have time to wallow in the self-pity. I just had to find a way to fix my thinking and then get straight into doing it. I got involved with unemployment, finding other ways to finance my lifestyle so that I can get the help I needed to actually get my life back on track to where I needed it to go.

I just had to keep going at it, if I stopped then I feel like all that negativity was just going to catch up to me and then weigh me down and keep me from going to where I needed to go.

Natalie: Absolutely. And that’s what I really want people to hear when they listen to this is you don’t have time to feel sorry for yourself. And you said, “I’m not sure if it’s the most healthy way to approach it.” It absolutely is because it got you moving, and it got you in the right direction, and it got you to where you are now. So it absolutely worked well for you. So definitely a healthy way to approach it, and I think other people can take that as well.

Matthew: Yeah. Just because it might be like you’re seeing it as like it is a bad thing that happened. Yeah, it might be a bad thing but you don’t have to let it define the rest of your attitude going forward.

Natalie: Yeah, exactly, yeah. And it doesn’t mean anything about you, you’re no less valuable, it was just it didn’t work out.

Matthew: Yeah. And then I guess there’s something else I want to tell. If anyone else is in that position, I am relatively young to everything, I’m just getting my feet wet with the whole job hunt, the job search. Everything like building my own career, I know for sure other people watching this, they’ve probably had more experience than I had. So with my limited understanding on how the professional world works, if I managed to figure it out then I have no doubt that especially with Natalie’s help you’ll be able to figure it out, no problem.

Natalie: Thank you so much, Matthew. Alright, so I’m going to end that now, thank you so much for the interview. Alright, bye.

To celebrate the launch of the show I’m going to be giving away an amazing surprise gift basket with all my favorite things in it. It will have some headphones, some books that I love and some other fun things that I know you will love too. And I’m going to go all out on this one. So you’ll want to get in on this. I’ll be giving away three of these to three lucky listeners.

To get a chance to win one of these surprise gift baskets all you need to do is rate and review the show on iTunes. I want to create an awesome show that provides a ton of value. So please let me know if it’s resonating with you. To learn more about the contest and how to enter go to nataliefisher.ca/podcastlaunch. I’ll be announcing the winners on some upcoming episodes.

Thank you so much for listening. I look forward to talking to you next week. Bye.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Get a 6-Figure Job You Love. If you’re ready to dive deeper into your career mindset and start making a serious impact in your industry, join me at nataliefisher.ca/getstarted. I will see you over there.