Welcome back to ask the expert. I'm your host Hannah place. And today we are going to talk all things, career transitions, jobs, resumes, interviews.

I have the one and only William Craig the third here. So let's welcome him to the show. Thank you, Hannah. So great to be with you. My goodness. I get the best of the best. Ah, well, we are so excited to have you here today to talk all things career transition. I would love to hear how did you get started in this industry?

If I'm truthful, it was an accident. I, I knew I had a gift for training. When I was 18, but training wasn't sexy at 18. Right. So it's like, okay, what are you going to do? So I wanted to do sales because that was my way of educating and making money too. Fast forward years later, uh, after nine 11, I lost my job because of nine 11.

I was a government contractor and I still wanted to train. And I ended up in a position in a, uh, um, HR training office, but I was working as an admin because that was the only position open. But I had shared what my desire was, was to actually do training. And from that opportunity, I, I started doing or managing projects.

training projects. So it took me to another level. So while I didn't realize it at first afterwards, I said, Oh wow, this is something that I need because if I want to do this professionally, then I need to know how to manage contracts and projects and long story short, long, short story longer. Uh, I found an opportunity stumbled on an opportunity that had nothing to do with training.

And I want people to hear this because sometimes the path is a little crooked. It's not a straight line and got there and they had a program where they were certifying trainers and I'm going, Oh my goodness, I want to sign up for this. My boss allowed me to, and being humble when I say this, though, I became their top trainer.

And I said, I found my niche. Well, sort of because while it was career oriented, it was a younger crowd working through, uh, one of the local community colleges. From there though, I did such a great job that folks said, Hey, we'd love for you to come work with us over here. It was working with older workers.

So I'm like, Oh my goodness. Right. Don't really want to talk to the older people because they're so difficult to work with. But after I found my footing, what I found was that they were just looking for someone who had patience, would listen, and could understand their plight. And, I mean, isn't that what everyone's looking for, right?

So, that went so well that after that contract was over, they passed my name on to another organization that was doing similar work. And I stayed there for five years, and then guess what happened? Yes, they passed my name on to another organization that happened to be the largest organization in the world for people age 50 and over and For ten years, I've been working with them, perfecting things, systems, processes, and it has been such a, such a joy.

Uh, I, I call it my labor of love because I believe this is my calling and not just a job. That's incredible. And I know that you speak about the challenges for middle aged women getting a job rather than men. Can you speak a little bit to why that exists? Sure. Well, first of all, let's look at some of the stats.

In America, over 50 percent of households, I think it's somewhere depending upon who you listen to, 51 to 54 percent of households are head by women. And who is, who gets the, has the biggest challenge when it comes to getting hired in the marketplace? Women or men. Well, it's women. So William, why is that such a hot button topic for you?

I was raised by a single parent, and I don't want to get too emotional here, but I saw the struggles. A woman who was knowledgeable had wisdom. A woman who was affable, a woman who would give the blouse off of her back to anyone, but yet, and still she had challenges. Why? Because she was a woman and because she was a black woman.

And in looking at those challenges over the years, they haven't changed much. You know, we look at the day in May when women finally, or April now, I think it is, women finally earn as much as their counterparts, right? So the man starts in January, but she doesn't catch up till May. And if you are a minority woman, it's August.

So my whole thing was if the hand that rocks the cradle rock rules the world. If the woman, if the majority of households are head, headed by women, then, hmm, seems like they need some help when it comes to getting hired in the job market. Because what I found is, and I'm not saying this just because you're interviewing me, but if you want to get something done, Tell a woman and it will happen.

And that's why I love working with women. The guys, they don't want to listen. They want to do it their way all the time, but the women will listen and they will follow instructions and they see the biggest successes. Speaking of instructions, what do you do so differently to help your clients get hired?

Oh my goodness. Well, there are, there's a simple four step process that I have perfected and it centers around number one, having a rocking raving resume. Number two, having a LinkedIn profile that is optimized, but engaging. And a lot of people don't know how to do that correctly. The next piece is making sure that their interviewing skills, Hannah, or where they need to be, because I need to hear your value proposition like right up front or else next.

And then finally, just knowing how to network. And that's so hard, especially for women over a certain age. So when we say middle age, we're typically talking from 40 to about 55 or 60. Uh, I was surprised to find out that older workers are considered older workers at age 40. That just, I was like, you gotta be kidding me.

But the bottom line is this is the demographic that I believe has the energy, has the wisdom, has the know how, the experience, and it many times has the connections. They are so resourceful because why? Cause they had to be. Whereas, you know, guys can like, uh, you know what? I don't feel like doing that today.

And I know I'm, I'm, I'm being stereotypical and I don't mean to oversimplify it, but at the same time, it's a realistic. Situation that exists in the workplace. And so, you know, at the end, when I'm resting, I want someone to be able to say, this guy came to my rescue and he helped me go from where I was to where I really wanted to be.

I'm sure you already have many of those stories. Is there any that you care to share with us today? One quick one that comes to top of mind is Erica. Erica was a service person. She had served in our U. S. Forces, Armed Forces. And, uh, found herself two months away from knowing how she was going to pay her mortgage.

She didn't even come to my program because she was looking for it. Her next door neighbor was and asked her, you know how ladies do, it's like, girl, come and go with me to this thing, right? See what it's all about. And, and they came together. So of course the friend wanted to sign up and Erica was like, I, I was just here for moral support.

But her friend convinced her to do so. A couple weeks in, Erica was like, you know, I'm not feeling this. I think, I think this is, like, not gonna work. Why? Because she had been through other programs and didn't work for her. And so I said to her, I said, Erica, if you'll just trust the process. Don't trust me.

Just trust the process. This will work for you. And she trusted the process. She did everything that was outlined. And can I tell you, she got hired in a great job, she was ecstatic, she got hired before her friend did, quite honestly. But here's the other piece. So when I called to follow up, say, Hey, Erica, just want to see how things are going.

She said, I lost my job. And I said, what happened? Well, they hired too many people for this contract. And so they laid me off. So I said, well, why didn't you call me? Cause you already taught me what to do. So I just went and did it. And guess what? She got another job and she was recruited from that job to an even better job.

He was a woman who just months earlier wasn't even getting crickets to respond. And now she's the own master of her fate and she's able to keep herself in a job market. Because why? She knew how to deal with those four simple steps. That's incredible. You clearly have a methodology. You have the strategies, but will you expound a bit more on, you know, there are so many coaches out there.

What makes you so different and set apart? Why should someone choose to work with you? Well, first of all, if you're a woman in your middle age, guess what? I'm one of your few options, but here we go. My, my style of coaching and training is one where I meet you where you are. In fact, I tell, I tell all my clients, I don't care how you got here.

That's not important to me. What's important is how we get you from where you are to the destination. So here's the other piece to that. I also call you on the carpet. And I say, if you don't know what you want to do, you're not ready for me. Why? Cause you can't hit a target you don't have. Does that make sense to you?

So in, in working through, they find out I really do care. Um, I'm not one of those people at one of these, uh, outsourcing companies that's just getting paid to send you some PDFs and say, see, you wouldn't want to be you. They, they know that I'm the kind of guy who's going to take the time. when we're coaching one on one to actually have your success at heart.

And can I just tell you, it's hard to find that. How do I say this? Uh, genuineness, I guess it's just the easy way to say it in the marketplace today. So, I mean, yeah, you can go out there and spend 400 bucks an hour, you know, and if you want to do that, here's my, no, I'm just kidding. But seriously, you could, you could spend 400 bucks an hour on a coach.

Who is just going to walk you through a few things and let you go or you can get a coach who's going to make it make available all of the information that you need. And then if you do want that one on one coaching, that extra hands on, then guess what me and members of my team can walk you through how to do each one of those things that you feel you're lacking.

It's incredible. For the woman or man even out there right now who is listening and they want to work with you, what do you want them to get out of this conversation right now? How do they get in touch with you? So career transition secrets. com is my website and what you'll find there, Hannah, are the secrets to a successful career transition.

That's why the name, but here's what you're also going to find. You're going to find that There are some people on the other end of the internet who are actually gonna be responsive. We give you the tools to do what you need to do for yourself to the point where you can no longer do it for yourself. So I like to always say, how can I help you help you?

Cause ultimately that's the deal. You have to do the work. Now I'm going to guide you based on your situation, circumstances, things that you want to accomplish and achieve. Yeah. You want to leave a legacy. So, you know, we need a bump in the income. Let's look at what value you bring and where we can play that out so much so that an employer is going to be interested in talking to you.

Right. But again, I'm I'm not going to cross the line as it relates to how involved you want me to be in this process. So we'll get you started where you can work on your own. And to the degree that you feel you need help, we're going to be here and we're going to provide the assistance that you need.

It's just that simple. Great. Thank you so much for being here with us today. I love your passion. Clearly you have a heart for bringing people into the right jobs and giving them the independence that they need. And, and truly just the empowerment to, to move forward to the next step in their career. Well, thank you, Hannah.

It's been a pleasure. Time goes by so quickly when you're having fun. Absolutely. Well, if you are watching this and you need a transition in the current job you have, maybe you are out of a job and looking for a new one, you now know what to do next. So get in touch with William and his team and we will see you next time on Ask the Expert.