Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Tips for Work and Life with Andrew LaCivita

Ever feel like you're doing everything you can to find a job, but nothing seems to be working?

You're sending resumes.

You're reaching out to employers.

You're grinding.

But the interviews just ain't coming.

Or maybe those interviews ain't turning into offers.

Every day that goes by without getting hired feels like another day you've failed.

What if, I mean just what if…

You're closer to getting hired than you realize?

I know, when your job search drags on, it's hard to know what to do next.

Worse, it feels like nothing's working.

Should you change your approach?

Try something different?

Stuff more resumes into the Applicant Trashing Systems?

Hope and pray things turn around?

Let's try something different.

Today, I'll show you how to get your job search moving even when it feels like nothing is working.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Why do people freeze in job interviews?

It's not because they can't think fast enough.

It's because they're trying to think about too many things at once.

What did they ask me?

What should I say?

Is this the right example?

Am I talking too much?

Did I answer the question?

Do they like me?

That's a lot of traffic running through your head when you're trying to have a conversation. 😂

The solution isn't learning how to think faster.

It's learning how to think less.

That's what today's lesson is all about.

Now, let's get you relaxed…

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Most job candidates think they're ready for their interview.

They've researched the company.

They've reviewed the job description.

They've practiced a few answers.

Maybe they've even asked ChatGPT, or the better version, ANDY AI, to throw a few interview questions their way.

But interview readiness isn't about checking a few boxes.

It's about knowing whether every part of your interview is ready to convince the employer you're the right person for the job.

That's why I created the Interview Readiness Scorecard.

It helps you evaluate the nine areas that can determine whether your interview moves you closer to a job offer, including:

·       Position alignment.

·       Your introduction.

·       Walking through your resume.

·       Your power story.

·       Behavioral questions and offshoots.

·       The questions you ask.

·       Your communication.

·       Your overall performance.

·       Interview logistics.

Before you listen this week's podcast, download your free copy of the scorecard.

👉 Download the free interview readiness scorecard!

Then listen to Are You Ready for Your Interview.

Wait. Before you race to the video…

As you listen, rate yourself in each area.

You get exactly zero points for being hopeful.

And zero for being optimistic.

I want you to KNOW.

Because confidence isn't something you build the night before an interview.

Confidence is something you earn through preparation.

By the end of the lesson, you'll know where you're ready, where you need work, and what it takes to become Coach Andy Ready™ before your next interview.

That's our new standard.

Ok. Now, go go go!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

You know you have the experience.

So what gives with not getting the job offer?

You're in the interview.

Per my Interview Intervention, that means you're qualified.

How come the interviewer couldn't see that?!

Is it possible you're making the interviewer work too hard to find your value?

Possibly?

Or, here's another favorite of mine…taking a wee bit too long to get to the point?

Oh. Let's not forget…giving them every detail instead of the details that matter?

Remember, it's the trailer, not the three-hour director's cut.

Any of these issues will literally strip the shine off your qualifications faster than my little Rocket 🚀 can remove the stuffing from his dolly.

Don't worry.

You have me.

And I have a lesson.

I know, my lessons are like penicillin for career ailments.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Are you worried you're too old to get hired?

If you're 22, settle down. 🤣

If you're 42, maybe pay attention to this lesson with one eye and one ear.

If you're 52, both eyes and ears, please.

If you're 62, pull up a chair. We need to talk.

Ageism is real.

Don't let anyone tell you it's not.

But I also don't want you thinking age is a disadvantage.

(Have I mentioned I'm now officially in my 60s? 🧓 Woo-hoo!!)

It can be a razor-sharp weapon that cuts through corporate nonsense!

Consider this lesson your personal knife sharpener.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

You're more experienced.

Yay. 

But here's a funny. 

Just because you're great at your job doesn't mean you're great at interviewing for your job! 

I see senior professionals make mistakes in interviews that actually make them sound less senior. 

They dive too quickly into the activity.

They explain too much.

They answer about how they execute instead of elevating the conversation to show how they think.

Then, when it's their turn to ask questions, they miss another ginormous opportunity.

Your questions aren't just there to help you gather information.

They tell the employer what you care about and how you think.

You need to be able to communicate the information without polluting your answer with everything else you know.

You need to start your stories at the right altitude. (This line took me a long time to come up with. 🤣)

You need to ask questions that show your command of the role.

And when you speak, your words and your conviction need to tell the same story.

Today, I hit some of the biggest interview mistakes I see experienced professionals make.

You're too good to let this happen to you.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Most people think influencing someone means making a stronger argument.

It doesn't.

It means understanding what the other person wants. 

Whether you're interviewing, negotiating a job offer, or trying to move an important conversation forward, the fastest way to change someone's mind isn't by pushing harder.

It's by helping them achieve their goal.

Today's lesson shows you exactly how using a common salary negotiation situation many job candidates face.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

There's a part of the interview process almost nobody thinks about. 

The emails you send after the interview.

Or throughout the hiring process.

Or when you get an offer.

Most job candidates assume email is the safest way to communicate.

Technically, it's the riskiest.

I've seen candidates try to rewrite an interview in a thank you note, send multiple follow-up emails, ask important questions over email, and even negotiate compensation.

Oy!

Here's the problem. 

Email strips away nearly everything that makes communication effective.

Your tone.

Not to mention your charming personality.

You can't explain what you mean.

Or why you're asking what you're asking. 

When you need to communicate something important, email is the worst tool.

Today, let's identify the traps, avoid the mistakes, and make sure your emails help your candidacy instead of hurting it. 

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

One of the biggest mistakes job candidates make is preparing for the wrong thing.

They spend hours trying to predict which interview questions they'll be asked.

They search for lists of the most common questions.

They memorize answers.

They rehearse responses.

And then they walk into the interview hoping they guessed correctly.

There's just one problem, I mean, other than this giving me heartburn.

That's not how you score the best in interviews.

The strongest candidates aren't focused on the questions.

In fact, they don't give one hill of beans about them.

They're focused on something else entirely.

This something makes interviews less stressful.

Not to mention, but I will, your answers more compelling.

And let's not forget the ginormous point about how your value teleports itself from you to them at hyper-speed.

In today's lesson, I'm covering why most candidates approach interviews backward and what to focus on instead if you want actually get the job.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

One of the biggest misconceptions job candidates have is that if they're qualified, they'll keep moving forward.

Uh, not how it works.

Every week, I hear from professionals who have the experience, skills, and background to do the job.

They get the recruiter call.

Then they never hear from the company again.

They assume they weren't qualified.

Or, they're totally confused because they believed they were qualified.

Hint: They were.

So, what gives?

Today, we dive into one of the most misunderstood parts of the hiring process and why good candidates get stonewalled before they get to the hiring manager.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Most people spend a lot of time thinking about what they want.

A better job. A bigger paycheck. More freedom.

But very few people ever stop to calculate the cost of not getting it.

Not next year. This year.

And the year after that.

And the year after that.

That's what got me thinking.

What if the biggest expense in your life isn't something you're paying for?

What if it's something you're not doing?

In this week's lesson, I'm walking you through a simple exercise that will completely change how you think about your career, your growth, and daily choices.

Because sometimes the most expensive decisions are the ones that don't feel like decisions at all.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

If your job search feels harder than it should, it's probably not because you're underqualified, bad at interviewing, or missing the goods.

It's more likely…

👉 You're asking each step of the job search to do too much.

Choosing the perfect role before understanding the possibilities that exist or how to evaluate them.

Eliminating companies before having conversations.

Using a résumé to explain your lovable personality and leadership style.

Re-selling skills during interviews instead of explaining the results you'll help the company achieve.

Explaining what you want during negotiation instead of focusing on what they get.

You get the idea.

Each step has a purpose.

When you overload those purposes with extra expectations, the entire process gets heavier and slower than it needs to be.

That's exactly what I break down in this week's lesson.

I'll show you how to simplify each stage of the process so your job search becomes clearer, more effective, and a whole lot easier to manage.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings: 

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Sometimes an interview is an hour.

Sometimes it's several rounds stretched across multiple days.

And sometimes you finally get time with the hiring manager… and the calendar invite says 30 minutes.

That's when many job seekers make the same mistake.

They think I need to cram everything in.

So they start walking through their résumé, overexplaining their background, stacking story after story, and trying to prove every qualification they've ever had.

But that's not what a 30-minute interview with the hiring manager is about.

The hiring manager is not trying to memorize your entire career history.

They're trying to make a few key decisions quickly:

Do I like this person?
Do they fit our team and environment?
Can they help us achieve our goals?
What will they actually be like to work with?

Today's lesson covers THE 4 areas you absolutely must win when you only have 30 minutes with the hiring manager.

Because when the interview window is short, quality beats volume every time.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

One of the biggest mistakes job candidates make is thinking the interview is only about what they say.

So they spend all their time preparing answers and trying to sound impressive.

Meanwhile…

The interviewers are reacting, signaling, judging, connecting, disengaging, leaning in, checking out, growing skeptical, getting interested, and making real-time decisions based on how they feel.

Most job candidates never notice any of it.

They walk out thinking, That went pretty well.

Then they never hear back.

Ouch.

Strong candidates don't just answer questions.

💥 They read people.

They understand what's going on inside the room while the interview is happening.

That's what I'm going to help you do in this week's lesson.

Sorta like giving you Coach Andy's X-ray interview goggles.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

One of the biggest mistakes professionals make is assuming that because a company is hiring… the company must be healthy.

Uh, sadly, no.

Sometimes they're putting fresh paint on the walls and didn't bother to patch the concrete underneath.

Today, I have a short, but powerful lesson on how to evaluate whether you're joining a company that's going up…

Or is sinking, but just doesn't know it yet.

Of course, no one has a crystal ball.

But as your dear ole' Coach Andy likes to say…

I can see around corners because I know what to look for.

In the next 5+ minutes, you too will have my see-around-the-corner goggles.

Just ask a few questions and you'll know whether their needle is moving up or down.

Smart professionals don't just evaluate the job.

They evaluate the future of the company offering it.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

I want to discuss one of the most important decisions you make in a job interview.

It happens before you ever start speaking.

It's not how you tell your story.

It's which story you choose.

Most candidates default to the example they like the most.

The one they're most proud of.

The one that feels the most impressive.

But that's not what determines whether it lands.

The story that sells you best is the one that fixes what's hurting them right now.

When you choose the right story, your value becomes immediate and obvious.

You don't have to work as hard to explain it.

You don't have to hope they connect the dots.

They see it.

In this week's lesson, I share a powerful analogy that'll help you identify which story will score highest in an interview so you can make your impact clear from the start.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Most job seekers think they need to beat the ATS.

Optimize the résumé. Match the keywords. Play the system.

That's the wrong goal.

You don't beat the ATS.

👉 You stay out of it.

Because the applicant trashing system is not designed to hire you.

It's designed to filter you out.

And when you rely on it, you're putting yourself in a low-probability game.

Most people aren't even reviewed.

Not rejected.

Invisible.

What does dear ole' Coach Andy always say…

Companies don't hire people.
Systems really don't hire people.
People hire people.

Why do you think while you're doing your best Resume Pez Dispenser imitation with the ATS, companies spend their time hiring through referrals, recruiters, and direct outreach?

Even if you're perfect, the system flattens you like a job-candidate pancake.

Keywords. Titles. Dates.

That's all it sees.

Not your judgment. Not your leadership. Not your ability to solve problems.

I know applying feels productive.

But it's not progress.

It's just activity.

The people who get hired?

They don't sit in the system.

They get to the people.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Let's talk about something most candidates completely miss in interviews.

👉 The questions they ask.

I'm not talking about whether you ask questions.

Most people know they should.

I'm talking about how you ask them.

Because here's generally what happens…

You wait until the end.
You ask something safe.
Something generic.

"Can you tell me about the culture?"
"What's the work-life balance like?"

[Insert buzzer sound here like the one your Coach Andy makes on Thursdays at Live Office Hours.]

And now you don't get another interview let alone an offer.

And you think you're doing the right thing.

But you're not helping yourself at all.

You're actually signaling the exact opposite of what you want.

You're signaling that you don't really understand the job.

Because strong candidates don't ask questions to gather basic information.

They ask questions to show they already understand what matters.

👉 They use questions as proof.

[Insert kaboom sound here. 💥]

That's the diff.

When you do this well, your questions stop sounding like curiosity and start sounding like experience.

That's when the interviewer starts thinking This person gets it.

That's what I'm breaking down in today's Tuesday Tips lesson.

I'll show you how to ask questions that position you as someone who already knows the job, not someone trying to figure it out.

👉 Listen to Ask Interview Questions That Prove You Know the Job!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Let's talk about something that sets people back.

Career mistakes.

Not obvious ones.

Ones that look like progress.

Work hard. Stay loyal. Do a good job.

The kind of unnoticeable acts that don't cost you a bad day.

They cost you years.

Years of time. Income. Momentum you never get back.

And it happens because people are pointed in the wrong direction.

Not because they aren't capable.

That's what we're fixing today.

This week's Tuesday Tips is not just a list.

It's a full-on hour of how careers actually work.

I walk you through 26 of the costliest mistakes across five critical areas:

·       Career Design, where most people drift instead of choosing a lane.

·       Career Growth, why people build the wrong skills or don't build them at all.

·       On-the-Job, how doing "enough" keeps you stuck.

·       Job Search, where most people completely misplay the game.

·       Networking, the mistakes that keep opportunities out of reach.

And more importantly that pointing out these mistakes, I'll teach you how to fix them so you can stop losing time and start making big-time progress.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Let's talk about the thing that's sitting in the back of a lot of people's minds right now…

"Is AI going to take my job?"

I get it.

You're seeing layoffs.
You're hearing nonstop noise about automation.

But here's the problem…

Most people are asking the wrong question.

They're thinking about AI like it's coming to take a fixed number of jobs.

That's not how this works.

Every major wave of technology does two things at the same time:

It eliminates certain roles in the short term.
And it expands the total number of opportunities over time.

The real issue isn't "Will AI take my job?"

It's…

👉 Is what you do easily replaceable at the source?

Because if it is… yeah, you've got a problem.

But if you understand where AI actually can't compete, you're not just safe…

You're in a better position than ever.

That's what I'm breaking down in today's Tuesday Tips lesson.

I'll show you how to think about this the right way and, more importantly, where to focus so you stay valuable no matter what changes.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

There is no faster accelerator in your career than communication.

And there is no bigger drag.

Think about it.

You have skills.
Experience.
Judgment.
Ideas that could help your team, your company, and your customers.

But between everything you know and the value you deliver sits one thing:

Communication.

It's the wrapper around everything you know.

It either broadcasts your value or it traps it inside.

Most professionals think their communication problem is clarity.

It usually isn't.

It's process.

When someone asks for an update, a proposal, or a recommendation, most people open a blank page and start writing.

While they're writing, they're also…

• figuring out what they want to say.
• organizing the information.
• editing the sentences.

All at the same time!

That's the mistake.

Great communication isn't winged.

It's constructed.

In today's Tuesday Tips lesson, I'm going to show you the exact system I use to create every form of communication I produce.

These steps helped me write this newsletter, the talk I'm giving you at Live Office Hours on Thursday, and even my books like Signal Strength.

Once you see it, you'll never approach an email, presentation, proposal, or conversation the same way again.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

One of the biggest mistakes job seekers make in interviews is trying to sell their skills.

They walk through their résumé.
They explain what they know.
They talk about tools and responsibilities.

They assume the employer will connect the dots.

But employers are not hiring skills.

They are hiring value.

Skills are just the ingredients.

Value is the outcome.

Two candidates can have the same skills.

Why does one get the offer and the other doesn't?

💥 Because one person explains what their skills do for the business, while the other only explains what they know how to do.

And those are very different conversations.

When you focus on skills, you sound like every other candidate.

When you focus on value, you sound like the person who can solve the company's problems. (Another 💥 right here.)

That shift changes everything.

In today's Tuesday Tips lesson, I'll show you how to make that shift so your experience connects the way it should in interviews.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Happy St. Patrick's Day. ☘️

If you're counting on luck in your job search, we need to talk.

Let me say something that might sting a little.

Your skills aren't the reason you're not getting offers.

And they're definitely not the reason you'll get one.

Most job seekers think interviews are about listing what they know.

"I'm certified in…"
"I've done Agile…"
"I've led teams…"
"I implemented…"

That's a menu.

Employers don't buy menus.

They buy outcomes.

They buy transformation.

They buy the feeling that when you walk in the door, their problem walks out.

(Not to break up the speed at which you're reading this, but you can't imagine how long it took me to come up with the previous line you just read. 🤣)

Where was I?

Right…

When you talk about your past like a list of features, they have to work too hard to connect the dots.

When you tell a story about a real problem, what was at stake, what you drove, and what changed because of you…

They do the connecting for you.

Everything becomes a deduction.

"If she pulled that off, she can handle this."

That's how hiring decisions are made.

Not by credentials.
Not by platforms.
Not by how many buzzwords you can stack into a sentence.

In today's Tuesday Tips, I show you how to stop selling skills and start selling impact.

Because skills don't win interviews.

This does.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

There is at least one moment in a job interview you can count on. 

Whether it happens literally or figuratively, it's this:

"Tell me about your accomplishments."

What do many people do when they hear this?

They panic.

Not because they don't have wins. 

But because they don't know how to talk about them without feeling awkward, arrogant, or self-promotional.

And that's where offers disappear.

Whether you're interviewing for a new role or discussing your impact with your current employer, one thing matters more than anything else: 

Can you clearly explain what you've accomplished and why it mattered?

If you can't, the interviewer fills in the blanks for you.

And they usually get it wrong.

That's why today's lesson is focused on how to share your wins without sounding like you're bragging.

This lesson will help you talk about your achievements in a way that sounds confident and credible, not self-important.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

If you've ever felt overlooked or misunderstood or plain ole underappreciated, this is my gift to you today. It doesn't matter if it's you job search or job. You're welcome.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings: 

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Most professionals don't struggle because they lack experience. 

They struggle because they can't remember the details that give their accomplishments life.

When resumes need updating or interview stories come up, people realize how much context and impact they've lost over time.

And memory is a terrible career strategy.

That's why today's lesson shows you how to capture your career wins so you can build a stronger résumé, tell better interview stories, and create more job opportunities. 

Career wins aren't just promotions or big projects. 

They're problems solved, improvements made, systems built, and results created along the way.

If you don't document those wins as they happen, your experience gets watered down.

What should sound impressive ends up sounding average.

Today, I walk you through a simple system to capture your career wins so your experience leads to more vivid stories, stronger positioning, and better outcomes.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

I hate that I even have to write this.

But fake recruiters and fake job postings are everywhere right now. And job seekers are being targeted hard.

That's not because you're careless.
It's because scammers go after people who are motivated, hopeful, and actively searching. That's you.

What makes this worse is how convincing these scams have become.

In fact, a couple months ago, one of my clients showed me a recruiter message that fooled me!

The company looked real. The LinkedIn profile looked legit. The email sounded professional.

It wasn't.

That's why this week's lesson is about how to protect yourself.

Not with fear.
With awareness.

In today's video, I walk you through 10 clear warning signs that help you quickly answer one critical question:

Is this real…or is it just a scam?

You'll learn:

• What to check first when a recruiter emails or messages you.
• How fake job postings give themselves away.
• Why Gmail addresses, rushed language, and vague roles should always make you pause.
• What legitimate recruiters never ask you for.
• How to verify a job or recruiter in minutes, not hours.

This isn't about becoming paranoid.
It's about becoming informed.

If you're job searching right now, please don't skip this one. Even smart, experienced professionals are getting caught off guard.

And if this helps you, pass it along to someone else who's searching. A simple heads up can save them a lot of stress.

Listen to STOP Falling for Fake Jobs and Recruiter Scams now!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Few interview questions create more damage with fewer words.

Not because it's hard.

But because people answer it at the worst possible time, with the least possible leverage.

Most candidates think this question is about money.

It isn't.

It's about timing, power, and whether you understand how hiring decisions actually get made.

Say a number too early and you either leave money on the table you'll never get back or price yourself out before anyone truly understands your value.

And here's the part nobody teaches.

There isn't one "right" answer to this question.

There's a sequence. 

A progression of responses that protects your leverage, keeps the process moving, and positions you to negotiate when your stock is highest, not lowest.

In this week's lesson, I break down:

Why giving a number early almost always works against you.

What recruiters are really trying to confirm when they ask.

And the exact recruiter-proof responses I use to control this conversation without sounding evasive or combative.

If you've ever felt pressure to answer this question quickly, or worried that one wrong sentence could cost you thousands, this lesson will change how you approach salary conversations forever.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Does it feel like you're not growing in your career?

Perhaps not learning much?

Or building new skills?

Or not sure which skills to even build?

Maybe you're noticing other people passing you by.

You're thinking, Why does she get the promotion? I'm just as good.

If any of those questions are tugging at you, you're in luck, because I've got a lesson today wrapped in a little story with a big punch that'll shed some light on the answers.

But first, one more question.

Do you think pulling together and delivering a status report is boring?

If you answered yes, drop what you're doing and give me four minutes.

Because you won't believe what I think of them, and how the secret to knowing which skills to build is sitting right under your nose every single week when you prepare this "simple" deliverable, or any of your deliverables!

Listen to This is How You Determine Which Skills to Build!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

If you're rehearsing your stories five minutes before an interview, you're cooked.

I'm not saying that to be dramatic. I'm saying it because it's true.

Right before an interview is not the time to cram, memorize examples, or mentally sprint through your résumé.

This will just get you tense, not to mention self-focused (🤔, hmmm, what's he mean here?).

Interviewers can feel your tension.

It becomes palpable.

The best performers do something different before any conversation. 

They run through a pre-interview ritual that puts them in the right state of mind.

Not a routine. That's too mechanical and mindless.

A ritual. That's a performance enhancer.

It's something intentional that interrupts fear, quiets the noise, and shifts their focus away from themselves and onto the people they're about to meet. 

Thanks to a great question from Shantel, that's what I'm teaching in this week's lesson. 

You'll learn why interviews are won or lost before the first question is asked, how to reframe every interview as a guaranteed win regardless of the outcome, and the simple mental ritual that helps you show up relaxed, confident, and ready to deliver value.

Interviews don't reward the most prepared candidate.

They reward the candidate who shows up in the strongest state.

Listen to The Pre-Interview Ritual That Helps You Perform at Your Best!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

January is one of the busiest and most misunderstood periods of the hiring year.

Behind the scenes, companies are launching new initiatives, trying to staff teams faster than most job candidates realize, and, unfortunately for them, replacing unexpected employee departures. 

Recruiters are active.

Hiring managers are under pressure.

Roles are opening that weren't planned just days earlier. 

Today, I'm covering why January creates both urgency and opportunity for job seekers and how to work the right activities that'll give you a leg up on getting hired.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Let me ask you something honest.

Have you ever looked at your effort and thought, "There's no way I should still be here?"

You show up. You work hard. You try to do the right things.

Yet your career, your goals, or whatever you want still feel out of reach.

I've coached thousands of people through this exact frustration.

The problem is almost never effort.

Most people work plenty hard.

That isn't what keeps them stuck.

It's something else.

In this lesson, I'm sharing a personal story from 2019.

It starts with me sitting in my favorite chair, coffee in one hand, my dog Harley 🌈 🐾 next to me, and a strange idea about doing an Ironman race even though I couldn't swim a single lap in a pool without wanting to faint.

(I signed up for the race and swimming lessons on the same day!)

That moment taught me one of the most important lessons of my life.

It's a lesson I want you to hear today.

Inside you get:

✓ Why hard work stops being enough.

✓ Why your progress stalls even when you want it badly.

✓ What separates people who grow from people who stay stuck.

✓ How to start living your goals before you reach them.

Listen now!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Everyone is trying to predict the job market right now.

Most of them are staring at headlines and waiting for someone to tell them what's going to happen in 2026.

That's the slowest way to build your career.

There's a much better approach, and that's what I'm teaching in this off-schedule Sunday lesson.

You'll learn why I never chase trends and how I make decisions that stand the test of time.

Then, you'll understand how to think the right way and why that beats any tactic or tool you use in your search.

If you feel stuck or confused by mixed job market messages, this lesson will give you a better direction.

I'll show you:

✅ The two timeless forces that always tell you where opportunity is hiding.

✅ How to spot industries that will stay strong in 2026 and beyond.

✅ Why your thinking matters more than any job search strategy.

✅ How to realign your search when you feel like nothing is hitting.

✅ How to read connections between industries so you can see around corners.

This approach changed the way I make decisions in my own career and financial investments.

It'll change how you navigate yours too.

Once you understand this way of thinking, everything in your career gets easier.

You'll stop reacting and start directing.

You'll stop guessing and start choosing.

Enjoy the lesson!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Job searching can be brutal. It tests your patience, your confidence, and your resolve.

But if you shift your focus from results to wisdom, everything changes.

That's what I'm teaching in this week's lesson, how to use your job search to make you a better professional.

In the podcast, I share a personal story about recently finishing my new book. It's now off and running with the publisher, moving through the production process.

The moment I hit send, I sat in my favorite Pottery Barn Wells swivel chair and thought for 20 minutes about nothing but the "agony" I'm going to endure over the next 12 months.

Kidding aside, I genuinely did this. I didn't think about how many copies I might sell or what it'd take to make a bestseller list. I focused on something more important, the skills I need to strengthen over the next year as I market and launch this new book.

You might think that because this is my fifth time around, I'd have mastered it by now. But if you assumed that, you'd be completely wrong.

Yes, I've done a lot right and built some great skills when it comes to marketing a book. But many efforts have fallen short of my hopes. Some were dead ends. Others just confused the heck out of me. Which means only one thing, I need to try new things, keep learning, and keep building.

Does this sound like your job search?

The things you think will work don't. The things you don't expect to work do. It's effort, surprises, ups, and downs. That's just life in a nutshell.

And what I'm about to say might sound like common sense. But I'm guessing it'll only sound like common sense after I actually say it.

If you're going to go through a job search, why not gain the benefits of the experience?

If we agree those benefits come in the form of new experiences and better skills, then it's time to ask yourself...

👉 What skills do you want to build throughout your job search?

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Most job seekers prepare for interviews the wrong way.

They start by memorizing answers to questions like "Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss" or "Describe a challenge you overcame."

But that's backwards.

Those questions aren't about your disagreement skills or your ability to solve one random problem.

They're about whether you can transform the company—their team, their performance, their results.

The secret to winning behavioral interviews isn't about rehearsing lines.

It's about building stories that sell what they actually buy: your ability to help them achieve their goals.

That's what this week's lesson is all about.

We're crushing how to prepare for and answer behavioral questions using the most powerful approach I've ever taught!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Most candidates talk about what they can do.

The best ones show it.

When an employer asks for a presentation, it's not a test of PowerPoint skills.

It's a test of whether you understand what they actually buy: transformation, not tasks.

Your goal isn't to list skills or repeat your resume.

It's to prove you can help them hit their goals and do it through a well-structured story.

This week's lesson shows you how to prepare a presentation that persuades and sells your value.

You'll learn how to:

• Identify what the employer truly wants to achieve.
• Uncover the real problems standing in their way.
• Choose powerful examples that prove you can solve those problems.
• Structure your presentation so it flows naturally and ends with impact.
• Highlight your skills as evidence, not filler.

Inside, I'll even show you how to use a single summary slide that ties everything together and seals the deal.

Listen to How to Give a Job Interview Presentation (That Gets You Hired) now!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Interviewers don't wait until you finish your story to decide if they like you.

They decide while you're still taking your first breath.

In those first 15 seconds, they're asking, "Do I trust this person? Do they get what matters here?"

Most candidates waste that window listing tasks or backstory.

The best ones win it by showing they understand the real business problem and hinting at the result they delivered.

That's what I'm teaching in this week's lesson.

You'll learn how to open with context that earns respect, why the STAR method fails, and the exact 15-second framework that makes your answers sound confident, strategic, and memorable.

Listen now!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Most people think success comes from constant hustle.

It doesn't. It comes from patience mixed with smart action.

Most people chase quick wins.

I learned the real secret is patience mixed with purpose.

When you think long-term, you make better short-term decisions.

You stop chasing every shiny idea and start stacking small wins that lead to something big.

Back in 2015, I made a decision that tested every ounce of my patience.

Even though I was most qualified to teach leadership, I didn't start there.

My long-term vision was to become a one-stop shop for your career.

But to earn that, I needed to start by solving your most acute pain first…getting the job.

That meant helping people fix their search, knowing they'd leave me once they succeeded.

It was a sacrifice, but a necessary one if I wanted to serve for the long haul.

This week's lesson shares (in under 4 minutes) how I created a long-term vision for my career success.

And how you can build yours using the same approach.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Perfectionism is the great career stall.

Most people don't slow down because they're lazy.

They slow down because they want everything just right before they move.

Job seekers spend months polishing résumés, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles before they ever start actually searching.

Professionals over-edit reports and presentations until the opportunity passes.

They all have the same problem…waiting until it's perfect before they ship.

But progress doesn't come from polishing. It comes from acting.

This week's lesson is all about breaking free from perfectionism so you can finally make real progress.

I share how I overcame a decade of "consultant conditioning" that taught me perfection was everything and how learning to act fast and iterate changed my entire career.

If you've ever felt stuck trying to make something flawless, this one's for you.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Most managers don't actually manage people. They manage tasks.

They tell.

They correct.

They rarely coach.

That's the difference between a boss people tolerate and a leader people trust.

When you learn how to coach and mentor someone, everything changes.

You build loyalty and develop people who think for themselves.

This week's lesson shares a simple four-step framework to help you manage people more effectively through better communication and growth.

If you lead a team, you'll recognize yourself in this one.

If you've ever felt frustrated trying to motivate someone who just isn't getting it, this will show you why.

It's not about pushing harder.

It's about coaching smarter.

At first, you'll wonder why you haven't been doing these steps all along.

Then, you can take action, or even manage upward, to start maximizing your team's enjoyment and performance!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Last week, we spent five full days together building and fine-tuning your résumé.

You now have a marketing document that's designed to get you noticed.

But here's the #1 mistake most job seekers make right now… they slow down.

They assume the holidays are dead time.

They think no one's hiring until January.

They coast into the new year.

That couldn't be further from the truth.

November through February is THE BEST time of year to land a new role.

Companies evaluate their budgets.

They make sure to spend the current year's budget so they don't lose it.

They prepare next year's budgets and identify the resources.

Then, they hurry to start recruiting because people aren't teleported on January 2.

They panic because employees who didn't get the promotions or raises leave. And then they have more seats to fill.

All these employee mobility spikes mean opportunities for you.

But only if you're in the game! 

If you step off the gas now, you're handing those jobs to someone else.

That's what I cover in today's podcast…

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Last month I celebrated my 59th.

It had me reflecting on the biggest influences that rerouted my path, especially the books that shaped my mindset, my career, my health, and even my view of the universe.

These aren't just books I enjoyed.

They are turning points that literally changed how I live.

Some helped me become a better teacher, others taught me discipline and financial independence, and a few opened up my sense of purpose.

Here's the list in the same order I cover them, with a personal note on why each mattered to me.

Mindset, Self-Discovery

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, Richard Carlson

I stumbled into this book in 1997 after literally knocking over a stack of them in Barnes & Noble. It sparked my lifelong love of self-help. Its short chapters and practical reminders taught me to let go of stress and focus on what actually matters, which helped me lead my teams (and my life) with a clearer head.

You'll See It When You Believe It, Wayne Dyer
This is the book I've re-read more than any other, sometimes daily for weeks at a time. Dyer's lessons on manifestation and the "seven attachments" helped me release ego, control, and the need to be right, which created more peace and focus in every area of my life.

Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert
Gilbert proves we're never as happy or as sad as we think we'll be, because we can't fully predict our future selves. This freed me from chasing perfection and helped me embrace the journey, knowing joy comes more from growth than from reaching the finish line.

Storytelling, Career Transformation

Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath
A dearly-departed friend gifted me this book in December 2007, and it completely changed how I thought about communication. Its framework for making ideas memorable became the foundation of my Interview Intervention methodology, and eventually the blueprint for the storytelling systems I still teach today.

Interview Intervention, Yours Truly
I wrote this book in just five weeks at the end of 2011, and it completely transformed my career. For the first time, I captured years of coaching into a system anyone could use, and that was the first official step that turned me from recruiter to teacher to author.

Choice, Goals, Perspective 

This Is Water, David Foster Wallace
This slim book, adapted from a 2005 commencement speech, is one of the most powerful I've read. Wallace's simple but profound message, that you can choose what to think about, has reshaped how I approach daily life, teaching me to stay present and compassionate in the middle of life's noise. It also served at the stimulation for the next book on this list.

Out of Reach But in Sight, Me Again
Born from a keynote I gave to scholarship students, I turned the speech into a book. Capturing timeless lessons on setting and pursuing goals, it later evolved into my Goal Setting Masterclass and proved how small steps can inspire big transformations.

Wealth, Health

The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley and William Danko
At 30, this book confirmed that wealth is built through discipline, not high income. It cemented my lifelong approach of living below my means, investing early, and building habits that would later help me achieve financial independence and peace of mind.

Good Energy, Casey Means
Of the 70+ health books I've read, this one had the most immediate impact on my life. Understanding metabolic health and cutting refined sugars, refined grains, and seed oils gave me more energy, clarity, and resilience than I thought possible. I've felt sharper and healthier ever since.

My Life's Work, Beyond 

The Zebra Code, The New Me
This is my most ambitious book, and easily the toughest project I've ever taken on. It demanded every ounce of experience, discipline, and creativity I had, but it also gave me the chance to share the full methodology I believe can help any professional thrive.

Journey of Souls, Michael Newton
This book opened my mind to ideas about past and future lives, whether you take them literally or not. It gave me a new lens for thinking about purpose, why I might be wired the way I am, and how being open to bigger questions can deepen the way you live today.

These aren't just books on a shelf.

They're turning points in my story.

Please add any of these to your own shelf that speak to you.

Maybe they can be turning points in your story too!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

It was 3:08 in the morning.

May of last year.

I was in my office already a lofty 8 minutes into my day.

Headphones on, speaking (uh, reading) into a microphone… and yelling at ducks.

Yes, ducks.

As I tried to record a passage for The Zebra Code audiobook, those feathered freeloaders on my backyard lake quacked like it was their job.

I must've sounded like a lunatic, hollering "Come on! I need 75 quiet minutes!"

But here's the truth…

I wasn't just recording an audiobook.

I was chasing a big goal that was important to me.

Writing a book is one thing.

Giving voice to it, putting myself on record, was something else entirely.

Big goals aren't really about the thing you achieve.

They're about who you become in the pursuit. (In this case, hopefully, not a total lunatic. 🤣)

They stretch your patience, your creativity, your confidence, and yes… even your relationships with ducks.

This week's video is all about this truth.

What really happens to you when you work toward a massive goal (and why the transformation almost never looks the way you expect)?

If you've ever set an ambitious goal, whether career-related, personal, or financial, you'll see yourself in this.

And if you haven't yet?

It might just give you the push to start.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

When you walk into an interview, you know the tough ones are coming.

👉 How do you handle problems?
👉 How do you serve customers?
👉 How do you disagree?
👉 How do you influence?
👉 How do you lead?
👉 What are you passionate about?

These aren't just "questions."

They're tests.

Each one is designed to uncover whether you can think critically, collaborate, lead, and actually thrive in their environment.

The trouble?

Most candidates stumble.

They ramble, give generic answers, or miss the chance to actually sell their value.

This week's lesson is on exactly how to answer these six hardest questions.

You'll learn:

✅ A step-by-step formula to keep your answers sharp and structured.
✅ Word-for-word examples you can model. LITERALLY!
✅ Why interviewers ask these questions and how to tailor your reply.

If you master these six, the rest of the interview will feel easy.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

You've got the skills. You've done the prep.

But the moment you walk into the room (or log into Zoom), it's like you're playing a different game.

Everything seemed fine when you were doing the work and sailing through the projects.

But to articulate that to someone who doesn't know you…ugh.

In these cases, your words matter.

Your tone matters.

And don't even get me started on your posture, your facial expressions, and even how you listen.

If you've ever walked away from an interview thinking, I wish they'd seen the real me, this week's lesson is for you.

I'm breaking down the exact verbal and nonverbal moves that top candidates use to win over interviewers both in-person and on-screen.

Here's what you'll learn:

• How to project confidence and warmth the second the conversation starts.
• The posture, gestures, and micro-expressions that build trust.
• How to use your voice to emphasize your value (without sounding rehearsed).
• Why "active listening" is your secret weapon in any interview format.

Whether you're across the table or on the other side of the screen, these tactics will help you look, sound, and feel like the top candidate every time.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

We've all been there.

You say something. You think it makes sense.

But the reaction you get?

Confused. Unmoved. Maybe even tuned out. Ugh.

Communication isn't about what you say.

It's about what the other person hears and, more importantly, how they feel and act because of it.

If you're not getting the results you want from your conversations, whether in meetings, emails, presentations, or even casual exchanges, there's a reason.

This week, I'm sharing 2 simple ways to instantly improve your communication skills.

These aren't gimmicks or tricks.

They're straightforward changes you can make right away to:
✅ Be clearer.
✅ Get buy-in faster.
✅ Avoid misinterpretations.
✅ Sound more thoughtful, credible, and composed.

Communication is THE SKILL that connects your value to the world.

If you want to influence, lead, or be remembered, this is where you start.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

If you've ever thought I want to build wealth, but I'm not sure where to start.

You're not alone.

Good news!

You don't need to read 100 finance books.

You just need the right ones.

In this week's lesson, I'm sharing 5 powerful books that'll help you build wealth and maximize your earning power.

These aren't just theory-packed reads.

They are the exact books I'd recommend if you asked me, "What should I read to take control of my finances and income?"

I run over a great book I think anyone and everyone should read to understand general investment strategy.

I hit a (very) surprisingly entertaining (and hugely helpful) guide that breaks down investing in its simplest form.

Of course, you know me. I love mindset and psychology, so I tossed in a couple that separate spenders from wealth builders.

And, now list regarding wealth-building would be complete if I didn't toss in the #1 book, IMHO, that'll help you improve your professional skills.

Your skills directly affect your salary and income and overall earning potential. Amiright?!?!?

These books are for professionals who want to put together an investment strategy, make smarter financial decisions, and grow their income with purpose.

And, don't worry, you don't need to be a finance geek to understand these.

You just need to be willing to invest a few hours to change your future.

Let's make money make sense so you can grow it!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

You've probably heard the phrase "don't sweat the small stuff."

Well, I'm here to tell you to do the exact opposite.

If you want to perform at the highest level, if you want to grow in your role, get promoted, or become a standout in your field, you better sweat the small stuff. 

Because that's where mastery lives. 

This week, I'm sharing one of the most important performance lessons I can give you. 

Whether I'm talking about writing emails, managing a team, speaking with clients, or building a long-term financial future, the people who succeed are the ones who obsess (productively) over the right things. 

In this talk, I'll walk you through:

• Why greatness lives in the details (with stories to prove it).
• How top performers think differently about their craft.
• A powerful health and wealth analogy that might just change how you approach your career.

You'll come away with a better approach for how to improve your day-to-day work and make long-term progress in your profession and finances. 

Just 8:46 and one of the best mental models I've shared… 

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my four books related to career development, interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

Do you ever feel like you don't have much to offer? 

Like your experience is ordinary? Obvious? Nothing special?

If so, you're not alone.

But you are wrong.

Today, I'm sharing one of the most important messages I can give you…

Your story has value.
It matters.
It can help someone.

The problem is, most people undervalue their experiences because they're consider their experiences in terms of what it means to them…as opposed to what those experiences can mean to someone else!

They think, Everyone already knows this.

But they don't. 

There's a huge difference between living a story and sharing it in a way that educates, inspires, and connects. 

Join me today and you'll learn: 

✅ Why your personal story is your greatest asset.
✅ How to reshape experiences into meaningful, teachable moments.
✅ The 7-step structure to turn any experience into a story that resonates.
✅ A pivotal story from my own early career. 

Let's do this!

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my three books related to interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy

There's a career skill no one taught you in school.

It's not on your resume. It's rarely on a job description.

But it's the difference between being heard and being trusted.
Between managing and truly leading. 

Empathy. 

And here's the kicker… 

Most people think they have it.

But very few understand what it actually is or how to build it. 

Today's lesson is one of my most personal.

I'll walk you through the three types of empathy (yes, there are three), show you how to practice them, and share a story that changed how I live and love (this WILL bring a smile to your face). 

If you want to deepen your relationships, earn trust faster, and elevate your career, this one's for you.

If you'd like to build a great career and lead a rewarding life, check out some of these other places where I share my teachings:

1. Check out the milewalk Academy, my coaching and training site, for freemiums and premiums.

2. I have hundreds of educational and inspirational videos on my YouTube Channel.

3. Grab any of my three books related to interviewing, hiring, and goal setting. All can be found on my Amazon Author Page.

4. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), TikTok, Threads, and Facebook.

5. Stay in touch with me in your email inbox by joining my newsletter here!

--Andy