How to Invest in Yourself
AI-Generated Transcript below. There may be errors.
Claire Davis 0:11
Hey everybody, it's Claire Davis and Loren Greiff. And welcome back to another episode of today's medical sales leader. I am so excited to have Lauren with me. If you don't know Lauren yet, let me tell you a couple of reasons why you must today and go follow her and go become as big of a fan of Lauren as I am. So few of many ever embarked on their job search ever thinking, Oh, this is gonna be a blast. Most of it go into what Lauren would call root canal mode, right? Lots of pain. So Lauren graves mission is to change that for you. And others who think that transitioning to your next position can't be powerful, effective, rewarding, and actually fun. So she has a C suite and executive level career consultancy. It's called portfolio rocket. And it's based on the curriculum that she created after more than 30 years in the corporate recruiting of top talent for Fortune 500 companies, and as a boutique direct to consumer for brands and everything in between. So Lauren's with me today. And what I absolutely love about her is she lives and breathes the credo that candidates, good top talent are found. They're found. It's not just about going out and grabbing that job. It's about positioning yourself in a place of power and authenticity, so that you light up like a beacon, and that you were found as a top hireable talent. So Lauren, thank you so much for being here with me today. You know, I love you. How are things going over there? We I promise we finally press record after chit chatting for like 45 minutes we've got to get we've got to get down to the work here. But today, we could talk about a million things. But if you are living and breathing in the United States right now, you know that layoffs are at an all time high and something else that Lauren brought to my attention that the C suite is at its fastest rate of churn ever. Lauren, what were you saying it's 40 months for a CMO?
Loren Greiff 2:22
For CMO. The estimated tenure is about 40 months, varying degrees of tenure at the CEO, CFO CIO CTO level, but you can pretty much say anywhere depending on the size of the company, right? And anywhere between 357 years. So even though this is a lot of turnover, and it's a lot of turnover at the top. And even if you're not at the top, the point that I'm trying to make here is that the shakedown is real. Every time there's that change of command, the musical C suite chairs. Somebody is impacted. Yeah. Yeah. And whether it's layoff or rewards, the they have a synergistic partnership, right. They work oftentimes in tandem. Oh, yeah. You know, I could tell you, hey, that's coming to an end. Yeah. But it's not.
Claire Davis 3:31
So we're thinking this isn't just a fluke of the market. It's not something that seasonal, this is something we're gonna see time and time again, across industries,
Loren Greiff 3:41
across industries, cross sizes of companies, whether they'd be startups or enterprises. And it's, it's the new normal. I mean, it really is, and in this honestly, isn't really that surprising. It's been going on for a long time, whether it was pre pandemic, pandemic, post pandemic, there are always, always always changes in the marketplace. And for people like you and me, Claire, we're studying this stuff. Like our life depended on it because it does, if we're not forecasting that information to our clients, we're not doing right by preparing them for what they can overcome. The circumstances aren't going to are aren't going to change because we want them to the idea here is to find strategies to overcome them, whether it be ageism, whether it be a lack of skills, whether it be competition, whether it be compensation, whatever those are, they're not just going to vaporize, we have to we have to be smarter about how we approach them.
Claire Davis 4:52
Right. It's, it's a little bit refreshing to me and in a in an in one way. Of course you know it is sort of jarring to know that the leadership of these major companies and healthcare certainly included. So if you're listening here and you're working at Medtronic, or Zimmer or Takeda, you know that this kind of stuff is happening to your organization to right, we see these things happening in the market right now. And when this has been recorded, this is in February of 2023. And the thing for me that is refreshing is that it also brings to light and I think, is empowering people to say, Hey, okay, so if the guarantee isn't going to be with the current company, where I'm spending time, maybe what I need to be doing is investing in myself as a professional, with my personal brand, with my network with the message that I'm sharing with the world, maybe with my leadership training. So you know, when we were talking a little bit before the show, and you mentioned this, to me about the rapid change of the C suite. You know, there's a lot of corporate leadership training, there are a lot of offerings like this, where once you get to a certain level, you're able to tap into some of these resources. But would you say that it is more important now to invest in these kinds of things, on your own terms, like going into public speaking, you know, coaching for yourself and going into executive leadership and presence and maybe project management PMP? Is this some are these kinds of things that people should be looking about investing outside of what their company offers.
Loren Greiff 6:34
So I feel really strongly about this. I mean, I'm almost like ready to stand up at my desk. Come on over. Yeah. Here's the thing. The higher you get, the more important the investment. Yeah, and the reason for that is because if you're involved in the work world, and maybe you're looking or you're in transition, the skills at a certain point, are pretty parity. The difference makers are in the type of leader you are, and how much you have developed yourself. Success isn't something that gets pursued out here in this area, in who you are becoming on a day to day basis. And your team, your company, your compadres, your stakeholders, your private equity partners, they know that so you can invest in the skills and I'm never gonna say don't, but you have to also fill fill the other areas that are surrounding that, which includes building those reports, obviously, your networks, all of this is is so vital, because people feel that they feel that they know that and you can have the resume as a placeholder, but then eventually they're gonna eat you. Right? And they're gonna want to know is what I'm seeing here.
Claire Davis 8:30
The experience that I'm having in real life some of those areas in we sort of touched on them before you know when you're trying to focus not on the job searching not on success as this external ring this external brass ring you get, but focusing internally on a few of the factors that you can grow in leadership is one what are some others you mentioned networking, huh?
Loren Greiff 8:55
Totally. I mean, these these, I'm like almost afraid to share them because they sound like no brainers. Your your communication style, both verbally, and the one that really kills me is the written Oh my god. Serious. Yeah. You think like writing a good thank you note would be would be a difficult thing to do. Most people don't don't realize how busy other people are and have scannable that that communication needs to be in a good subject line not I'm following up. Oh, yes. Snore fast. Yeah, no, it's got you've got to be able to use the tools. Every single touchpoint is another piece of communication that tells somebody something about you, good or bad, right? So they talk about your personal brand. And so if you're signing off your emails, and it's dry and boring, and there's no PS, and there's no like wink in there, you're telling them your dry and boring your cookie cutter, you're just like every other candidate.
Claire Davis 10:14
Ah, there it is. That's the thing. And it's not. I think sometimes we feel like oh, shoot, you know, we see this new information on maybe how to write a stellar email that makes people leap through their computer to get in touch with you. And we think, oh, gosh, I'm doing it wrong. It's not wrong. It's vanilla. It's bland. And the thing is, is there are resources out there that aren't just for marketers, right? I was, I was talking with someone the other day. And they said, Well, you're a writer, you've been writing, you know, you know, all the writing secrets and have done probably, since you were in your 20s. And so basically, right now, no, just kidding, I'm not actually my toys. But anyway, so um, you know, I still take writing classes, you know, I think that it's worth wherever you are in this, whatever stage you are in the game, to continue to enhance your skill set. Last year was the first time I had ever taken a public speaking course. It blew my mind. people noticed, I know, you know who I'm talking about. It's our best buddy, Brendan, right. Or Brendan, I tagged him and, gosh, it. But you know, it wasn't until today. It wasn't until this stage in my life, which now I've got a business, and I'm not in that job seeker realm, that I'm realizing Holy smokes. If I would have known, then what I know now, I would have taken copywriting courses, I would have taken SEO, I would have taken medical terminology courses, I would have done much more public speaking and confidence training, because that's what would have set me apart. It's not that I was doing it wrong. But I want to stand out. And that's where I think there's a huge opportunity for people because as there are the shifting sands in the marketplace, and certainly they're shifting sands in the health care market, if any, anybody here who's recently been laid off, or you're starting to hear less and less from your boss these days, or you're seeing some of the C suite, leadership change hands, take note, now is the time to get some of this stuff under your belt so that you can create the sort of evergreen the sort of additional value that you are as a leader and as a professional, that's not going to go stale. It doesn't it's not determined by what company you work for. So I love this idea. Something else I heard you talk about, on your recent show with Vamsi. Incredible leader as well, was that you don't even use the term dream job. So let's, let's pivot into that. Let's pivot into why we don't even talk about dream job as a reality anymore. So tell me your take.
Loren Greiff 13:09
Okay. So, first of all, you have to know I'm always going to be anti cliche. So anytime there's a cliche, I I'm like, gonna blow it up. That's just part of who I am. So if something is the same, the same, the same? It's funny. I've been thinking about this. I'm like, ready to pull the trigger on this? I don't know if you've been seeing all these carousels on LinkedIn. I call them the black box boys. Yes. And I'm like, Oh, my God, everybody's just jumping on this bandwagon because this person proved it out. And now I'm just gonna copy copy, copy, copy, copy. I'm not interested, right? Like not. So if you also are jumping on the cliche that there actually is a dream job. Forget it. Forget it, not just because it's so transient in the marketplace. But the idea that it's this final destination, that there is this idea out there. I mean, the dream job that I had 10 years ago doesn't even look anything close to what it looks like now, right? And this it, I believe, cements this idea that once you get there, you're done. You're done. I got my dream job done. Yeah. And, like, I don't have to do much more because I won my prize. It doesn't work like that. You can have this. This is a stepping stone to this. This is a pivot to that this is a new experience to explore X, Y or Z. But this idea that this is There is a hard and fast place that you're supposed to land. I really just rubs me it's like, like nails on a chalkboard. It sends the message, I think, to each one of us that I don't need to keep playing in the game. And the game.
Claire Davis 15:27
Yeah, it's, I think, I think you're right. To me, it feels incredibly limiting. And I'll give you a story. So I was working with this gentleman not so long ago. And he was laid off from his company, and he calls me he's walking on the beach. And he calls me and he's like, Claire, I just got laid off. Worst thing ever. The company, you know, really, it was raw, it was rough. Let go. So I want to go into find another similar role. Right, but but to be honest, between you and me in the sand and the ocean waves here. I'm bored. But I know that this is what I'm good at. I know, this is what my title is. So this is where I'm going to stay. I said, Okay, and so we got that we got the, you know, the resume, Dan, we did LinkedIn. And then we started talking a little bit about who he is, as a unique, uniquely valued professional, and what kind of things he actually brings to the table, like, what, what are the moments when people say, you know, what, um, you really helped me in this area, it's not really exactly related to selling a specific diagnostic oncology product. But this is where you had an impact for me. And we started leaning into that, and leaning into that, and he got more interested and we started talking about content on LinkedIn, we started talking about marketing, and this idea of going evergreen, with your career with your brand with your presence. And through the action through not being tied to what he was supposed to do what his dream job was a dream job was supposed to be, he found that there was this entire other world in commercialization that lit him up, like a like a firework. And, sure, shoot, and that's what he's doing now. And he's absolutely crushing it. He's like, tapped into this vein of x of exceptional excellence, that he didn't even know was there. Because he was he started to invest in himself. And it emerged because that's just, it was in him all along. But he hadn't taken the time until the investment in Himself in His branding, to even know that that was, that was a possibility for him.
Loren Greiff 17:44
Right? And I want you to for me, and any of your other listeners, put evergreen in context, what are you hinting at when you talk about evergreen just so I can hear? Yes.
Claire Davis 18:00
Yes. So for me, an evergreen career is one where you aren't in this roller coaster of, I'm looking for a job, I need a job or I have a job and I need a job. It's instead one where you're continually nurturing. You're continually showcasing who you are as a professional, growing as a professional and networking so that the opportunities don't stop. It doesn't, it doesn't just become this roller coaster. It's evergreen, like a tree that's green all year round. And being in Spokane, we have a lot of examples of those. And for me, what I've found is when my clients really embrace and when I had the opportunity after far too many layoffs, I know, I know, you know, the storyline was that I was hit with the realization that the company could not guarantee stability in my career, that career stability is a myth. And no one wants to talk about that, because
Loren Greiff 19:02
And no one wants to talk about that, because I'm gonna I'm going to be the whistleblower. It's my all bought into it, right. And we all think, which is part of the equation of that dream job is that when I have my job, it also is code for I have security because I've arrived and I've, I've sealed the deal. And I think that that that the paradigm, and I hate this cliche, you know, the paradigm shift, but the adoption of and the acceptance around, I can't get too comfortable. I can invest. But at the same time that I'm investing in the company that I'm currently at, I also have a responsibility as somebody who is signing up to be a change maker or transforming this industry or somebody who's a quote unquote thought leader or just somebody that loves their loves what they do. Yeah. to also invest in ourselves. Yeah, one of the things that I talked about in the episode that I did yesterday with Vamsi was there's actually a guideline that suggests to people in the professional world, how much they should put aside in their compensation for their personal development. Schramm, scram actually, like gives us a tool, and they 5% of your overall compensation should be allocated to skills development, personal development, making sure that you're not atrophying with within your areas of expertise. Who does that? Yeah,
Claire Davis 20:54
Yeah, I know.
Loren Greiff 20:56
There's a vacation budget. Yeah. Right. There is in my house. Right?
Claire Davis 21:01
Like, yeah, I think this is a brilliant, a brilliant concept. I think 5% is a perfect place to start. And once at least, I can say that once I have had the chance to do some of this. And, and as a, as a business owner. For me, it became more apparent because I'm wearing all the hats, many of which I never had before, right? Entrepreneurship found me suddenly out of this business, I figured out how to run it. So for me, investing was in that vein, but it started to highlight other ways that I could level up to provide more value to people that I'm working with. Oh, my goodness, Lauren, seriously, if I had known this stuff when I was still in the field. So Alex, we're mostly talking about this. Yeah, right. I mean, I wish we I wish we had known this before. And he's he talks about it in terms of education, and taking, I think, even up to maybe 10% or so, of the, of the finances that you can, per year, to reinvest in yourself, because when you take care of this, everything else starts to become a little bit more clear.
Loren Greiff 22:15
Totally, I don't know why the reason? I don't know why there is resistance. I don't know why there would be. But there is. And I think it's based on another lie, which is, oh, I shouldn't spend that money on myself. I shouldn't you know, that's, that's so indulgent. You know, and, and I asked this question all the time, are you you know, where else are you going to get the best ROI because your the best ROI of your life isn't going to come from a vacation or a pair of shoes, or even, you know, necessarily, from spending a lot of money on your house. It's, it's really going to come from what you what you're making of yourself and the contribution that you're here to deliver on. Yep. And, and at the end of the day, and we're seeing a lot of this happening also at the C suite where people are finally waking up and saying, you know, what, my time is more valuable than my, my title. And my, my, my compensation, I need that time. need that time?
Claire Davis 23:38
I wonder, too, if time is also a limiting factor for many, and not feeling deserving of spending that time on growing in a certain area, versus giving it to work, giving it to family, giving it to others, right, because, yes, it's important to do those things. But I think we all know, I mean, that when we don't take care of ourselves, we have less to give others in the first place. I wonder if it's that feeling of deserving like I'm just I'm a CEO, I'm supposed to have all the answers. And that's why I sit down yes,
Loren Greiff 24:18
And that's why I sit down yes, that's just BS, because anybody that thinks that they have all the answers, a couple of rude awakenings. You got to start with a level of humility, because if you are really of the mind that you are a servant leader, and you buy into this idea of continuous learning, it starts with you. You being CEO, you being whoever you are, and and that's and that's never going to change now. You got to walk the talk with it.
Claire Davis 24:57
Right. Right, exactly. And I think And I wonder too, if vulnerability plays a part here, because part of you must say, Okay, I need to be able to run this part of my business, it's not my specialty or I'm uncomfortable here. I need help. I need help and admitting that and admitting that maybe not, you know, out loud even just admitting it to yourself and then going after those resources, super powerful.
Loren Greiff 25:22
You want to respect gays, you know, build in some vulnerability because that's what people really respond to not because it's a, it's, it's clickbait. Because you have respect for somebody who isn't necessarily showing up as the model of perfection, or somebody else who's just copying to some some level of humanity. And we all we all cheerlead for those people until it's until it's us, and you have to try it yourself. Yeah, exactly. Amazing. Good for you. I love your vulnerability. It looks good on you. But I don't know if I want to wear it.
Claire Davis 26:02
It's not for me, it's not my color. No, that's okay. You, you get all you get all vulnerable with your brand. So you know, something you said earlier, struck me today, Lauren, and you said we over index on the things that we know. And we under index on the things that work? Can you break that apart for us? And sort of tell us a little bit more about that idea?
Loren Greiff 26:25
Sure. So in the job search, we over index on undoing a lot of the things that we know, we know that they should not? Not always, but we just go back to those job boards, because it gets very tempting, you know, it's like, well, it's in there, it's looking at me, and why not? You know, why not? It's kind of like, you know, pulling down the the, the, what is that thing called? Slot Machine thing? Like I you know, like maybe I'm that lucky winner, maybe I'll I was smart, that electronic algorithm, maybe somehow some weight is going to be different for me. And so we lean into that, because it can feel very soothing. It could feel like you know what, at least I'm doing something. And we start feeling like, wow, I could be the lucky winner and make some progress. And so we index over index our time on a lot of the job boards. We don't know another way, we over index on how much time people are spending, reading our resumes. We all know it's roughly six seconds. And I mean, I'm sure you have many people that come to you and say, you know, I spent seven hours on my resume, and it still sucks, right? Fix it. And so, we spend all that time. And we think that that's the Holy Grail. Yeah, no need those job descriptions. And we take that as the gospel. You know, we were like, well, you know, I can check all these boxes. And you know, that's gonna, I'm, I'm qualified for that role. I have so many people that say, I fit everything on this job description. And I'm like, so does everyone else who's applying? Yeah, right. Did you ever dawned on you that most people who are applying think that they are also have the winning ticket? I want to know what's not on the job description that you're going to bring to that party?
Claire Davis 28:31
Ah, nice. Okay, so let's talk about that. What are some of those things? What do you see Warren that isn't said in that job description that people need to be thinking about? When it comes to applying for an executive role, especially for your for your clients?
Loren Greiff 28:47
I'm actually I'm going to cheat. I'm going to I'm going to quote our bestie here. Awesome. And this is one of my favorite quotes. And I do I use it all the time, because I think it's brilliant. Yeah, as you become more senior, you have less words to influence more people in less time. Oh, okay.
Claire Davis 29:10
All right, mic drop, hold on. As you become more as you become more senior, you have less words to influence more people in less time.
Loren Greiff 29:14
Wow. Powerful. So what that means is, get rid of your filler words. Make sure that whatever you are sharing, whether it be in a networking conversation, or an interview it's moving. It's it's causing some kind of response reaction, emotion, something, you're leading that entire entire conversation in what you're sharing or not. And they're thinking thing, which is not on the job description, what they're thinking is, can this person be on my board and influence all these other people? Should I put them in front of the private equity group? And have them really tell our story? That's the job description? Are they is it saying, Hmm, you know, we're gonna have to lay off and other 30% of our team? Is this person going to be able to deliver that in a way that demonstrates a dose of empathy and compassion without having our social media blow up? And people descend on us? That's what they're thinking. So you got to look way beyond what what's obvious, and really invest in some of the things that are that they're thinking about? What is what, what is their criteria? How are you going to make them really look good, but also, how can you authentically, authentically I'm really saying this, walk the talk so that you are delivering for, for that organization separate and different from anybody else? Who's in that candidate pool?
Claire Davis 31:14
Mm hmm. I think Do you think the fastest way to that is stories?
Loren Greiff 31:23
Definitely. Yeah. But good stories, right? Yeah, we can. I had somebody who is an over talker, and she's like, Well, I'm just a storyteller. I'm like, No, you're blabbing.
Claire Davis 31:36
Jake, to get to the point.
Loren Greiff 31:39
I didn't check your storytelling is is not just for the sake of hearing your own voice. Storytelling. has to drive some kind of aha moment for the other person. Yeah.
Claire Davis 31:55
Yeah. Well, speaking of aha moments, I know you and I could go on for hours on this stuff. I say round to we talk through some, some specific things that you have done in your career to do this and how your clients have seen results too. So until round two, until round two, where can people find you or if they want to connect?
Loren Greiff 32:18
On LinkedIn, it's my home away from home. I'm there all the time, or you can find me on that
Lauren@Portfolio rocket.com.
Claire Davis 32:31
Awesome. Thank you so much, friend. Until then, have a wonderful day and thanks, everybody for coming. Back.
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