33: Developing Resilience, Creating Opportunity & Interning at Google with Stephanie Nuesi

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Adam Coelho: Welcome to the mindful fire podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond I'm your host, Adam Coelho.

And I'm so glad you're here.

On today's episode, I'm joined by my new friend, Stephanie Nuesi.

Stephanie noesi is the founder and CEO of max up a career coaching firm, whose mission is to maximize the potential of future leaders of the nation. . She has interned in various top accounting firms, tech companies, and  banks in New York city in California.

Stephanie is passionate about career coaching and public speaking. She has given over a hundred workshops and events in seven countries and has been a guest speaker for companies like Wiley, the AI CPA, UBS. Stephanie has been featured on the well, the CPA journal, Josh talks, USA , and has helped over a thousand students and professionals from all over the world with their company Max Up, [00:01:00] where she provides career coaching and professional development strategies and resources to help them land their dream careers. 

Because of her passion in the community she's built around her work she was chosen as a 2019 Forbes under 30 scholar.

Stephanie's mission is to create an impact in the world one person at a time.

In this conversation. Stephanie shares her journey through life in which she was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and moved to the United States at the age of 17, not speaking any English  and was able to navigate the difficulties of adjusting to American society, finding her way into college and ultimately creating her own company, max up a career coaching service.

 And Stephanie shares, how she's recently landed her dream job at Google as a bold finance intern, which is what got her on my radar when I came across her on LinkedIn.

 And Stephanie also shares her thoughts on building resilience and how to respond to rejection because ultimately when you're applying for jobs and colleges, rejection is part [00:02:00] of the game and it's certainly part of life.

Stephanie also shares  a lot of really practical advice on how to use LinkedIn as a tool to find jobs and to position yourself as a thought leader. 

 I really enjoyed this conversation with my new friend, Stephanie Nuesi, and I hope that you enjoyed as well.

 You can find the full show notes for today's episode, including all of the resources, books and links mentioned in the episode mindfulfire.org/33.

   Let's jump into today's episode. 

Stephanie, welcome to the mindful fire podcast. I'm so glad to have you here. 

Stephanie Nuesi: Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited.

Adam Coelho: I'd love to have you start by sharing a little bit about yourself, your journey, and what you're up to now.

Stephanie Nuesi: Absolutely. So I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and I came to the us about five, six years ago in 2015. And, as [00:03:00] someone who was a first gen like myself, I struggle and face so many challenges and rejections trying to adjust to a new country, a lot of culture shocks and different things that I face as a teenager.

I came when I was 17, I'm 22 years old right now. And I can tell you that I've lived and experienced things that I never even thought I would at 22 years old. That's just something that I really want to express and help people with that it's not really about the age, but really well, the experiences and  life lessons that you might have.

And so say teenage year 17, I came to a new country, I've been speak English. I had to adjust to a new environment. And then as a first gen, I have to learn, how could I enroll into college? How could I get an internship? How could I get a full-time job? How could I help my family who was back then he, my country come to the us as well and get the opportunities that I was getting.

And I was just 17 years old. So it might've been a 17 year old teenager having all those thoughts and responsibilities so early on. [00:04:00] I really had a lot of load in my bag, as I said, someone who was so young, but that helped me eventually to see. That's how life is. It might not be the same for everyone, but if that's the life that you got, then you just got to go with it.

And I went with it. I struggled a lot, went through those many challenges for here am today, seeing the results of so many sacrifices and things that I did through out my early years when I was just becoming an adult. And I can tell you by 18, 19, I already considered myself an adult. And so that opened my mind to different perspectives.

And I'm just so happy to be with all of you today and talk about all of those different perspectives that I was able to evolve. 

Adam Coelho: That's awesome.  I can only imagine that responsibility that you felt. Not only the immediate challenge of learning to speak the language that everyone around you was speaking, learning to adapt be in school and then get into college that challenge and then also just the thoughts of, okay, how do I make the most of this opportunity? How do [00:05:00] I bring my family and community along with me?

So that's quite impressive. 

 Stephanie Nuesi:  You reminded me of a quote that I heard from my mom when I was growing up. And she said it's a Spanish girl, so I'm going to do my best to translate it.

But she said basically you fly gay fuel lemons, you good to go ahead and do you lemonaide, it sounds better in Spanish the way she said it, but basically you just got to go with whatever you have on your table and find ways to figure it out. That's how life  is and  I'm pretty sure men encounter situations like that through my entire life.

This is not just a one-time thing. So I just gotta go with it and see how I can solve in the best way possible. 

Adam Coelho: Absolutely. And that is also a phrase in English. So if life gives you lemons, make lemonade, they say so. Yeah. It's it's a good reminder,  like we all have our own challenges and our own struggles and matter what background you come from, what means you come from, you're going to have difficulty in life.

And it's all about how you adapt and build resilience and keep moving forward. 

So talk a little bit about what you're [00:06:00] up to now. 

Stephanie Nuesi: Yes. So currently I am working in my startup  Maxup which I started two and a half years ago in 2019. So to give you a little background when I was going through college and navigating the recruitment process in the us and just getting myself out there with different opportunities, I didn't have the right guidance.

First of all, as a first gen, I didn't know where to find the guidance. And a lot of people tell me that, you should network, you should go about meeting new people and things like that, but I didn't know how to do that. So I  had a lot of challenges with networking with people trying to open the doors for myself, which I didn't have anyone backing me up to do that or pushing me for that matter.

And so it was the first instance in my life where I said, you know what? I need to do something different. I need to help other people who might be in the situation that I was. And the other challenge that I also faced was not finding the right resources. So I didn't know where to find resources, to edit my resume or  edit of my cover letter or [00:07:00] anything like that.

And so I really wanted to  give opportunities to other people who were struggling things that I was struggling. So in 2019, I was listening to a podcast just like this one. And I was sitting down in my couch, I remember this day, exactly. It was January 3rd 2019.

When you start a year, there's the, this new year solutions. And I was sitting down to write down some things that I wanted to do for a year. And then this person on the podcast said, Hey you, yes, you, why haven't you started what you said, you were going to say.  And I don't know why I thought he was talking to me.

It's one of those moments where you feel like someone's talking to you when they're really not, but he just that moment where you say that's true. And I remember looking around and I saw a notepad, but I had like the idea that I wanted to create. And that was just abandoned in the corner of my room.

And I said, this might be a sign. This might be a sign that I need to start what I wanted to do. And I don't remember, I did look over at an notepad, but I didn't really do anything. That was just the first sign. A couple of months [00:08:00] later, it was August of 2019. So see the difference right there. It's like almost eight months difference.

I was  watching a TED talk. I'm a huge TED talk lover. I love public speaking. I love talking to people. And so watching TED talks is something that I love to do. And there's this person talking about maximize. And hear that. And it resonated with me because that's basically what I want to do with people.

I want to help them level up their careers. So I wanted to help them maximize because level up for me was sure, level, what happens next. I wanted to find the right words for me. And I said, maximize. And then my other part is that I wanted to help people unlock their potential. So when I put one of those togethers, I said, okay, so maximizing potentials, basically going above the average of what you think you can do and what society tells you that you can do.

And so that's how the whole idea behind my startup came up. And I remember August of 2019, I sat down with a mentor and we wrote down the business idea. And then we [00:09:00] got a rolling two and a half years from now, and  I've seen so much success in the lives of so many students and professionals.

That the moral of this story. And the reason why I'm telling this to all of you is, do not ignore the signs of things that happen around you, because sometimes you might just go ahead and continue your life and not look at it, but that might mean something to you of something that you really wanted to do and that you didn't do because he thought he was not the right time or spend the appropriate time or whatever reason it is.

Sometimes those are just as excuses that we put in ourselves to not start some thing. So that's where I'm up to today now. So it's max up, and now after max up, currently working on my dream company, I think you've read the story on LinkedIn too.  I think that I'm living right now something that  manifested a couple of years ago as I was walking by with my mom.

Adam Coelho:  I really appreciate you sharing the story of how the startup came about, and it's really cool to hear that you were doing [00:10:00] some reflection and listening to a podcast that kind of spoke directly to you and asked you what's that thing that you said you were going to do, that you didn't do, 

that was the kick in the pants, the sign, so to speak that got you to move forward, or at least reengage that idea in your mind. I had, many instances of that in my life as well, including with the podcast, the podcast was always some idea that I had in my mind. I want to talk about this stuff.

I want to talk about mindfulness. I want to talk about financial independence. But it was a conversation with a friend of mine. He came to Google for lunch when that was still a thing. And he basically was like, you've been talking about this for a while, man. Like, when's it going to happen?

Why are you over-complicating this? Just do it. And so I really liked that advice that you gave the audience to pay attention to the signs. Another book I really love is the Alchemist. I don't know if you've read that, but it's all about following the signs. And I just put out an episode recently with a friend of mine, Eric Sanabria.

 My friend texted me  this is like the Alchemist in a [00:11:00] podcast interview. And it was following the science, trusting yourself. And so it's really cool to have you share how that's been a factor in your life and to encourage the audience to do the same. 

Stephanie Nuesi: Absolutely. And I think something else I'm going to add as well, is that I see so many people saying I can achieve something because I follow the wrong signs or maybe, you know what I think it really was just not what I wanted to do.

And I  tell people you're going to make mistakes in life. You're going to choose the wrong path, but guess what? There might be something at the end of that journey of that path that is the beginning for it, that journey that you really want to pursue. And maybe you were just meant to do that.

So I like to look at things in a different perspective and say this didn't work out, but what did I learn from this? Now, let me use it. So you continue my path towards what I want to achieve.

Adam Coelho: Absolutely. And you never know until you start walking down the path. And just like on a real path, you don't know what's up there [00:12:00] until you start walking down the path. And once you do start walking, taking a few steps down the path, you start to learn a little bit more about yourself, what you want, you check what you thought you want.

And yeah, like you said, down that path might be the start of another path that aligns more with you when you get to it. And so absolutely great advice there. 

So tell me a little bit more about max up and what you offer through that startup. 

Stephanie Nuesi: Yeah, absolutely. I offer a career consulting services.

So everything  from resume reviews, mock interviews, getting your cover letter, ready, getting your LinkedIn ready, the ball, upping your online branding and everything you would think of to advance your career. And the reason why was because as I was saying at the beginning of the podcast, I had a very rough path in terms of getting into my career.

And I wish I had the right guidance and I wish I had the right resources. And what it did was through all my years of failing, testing, failing, testing, getting reject that I did something that a lot [00:13:00] of people, don't do anything they should do is look at themes that work and look at things that didn't work.

Now everyone, I was going to have a different scenario when it comes to, applying for their careers. But if you're able to find a common pattern and help people do something with that, then that right there is something that can help many people. And that's exactly what I did after so many experiences with so many different industries.

And I'm talking about every industry you can think of. I at least have one interview with them. I Alyssa one rejection with them. And the reason why I'm sharing this is because I'm not shameful to say that I got rejected. It is what it is. It happened. But what I'm thankful is it, those rejections helped me build the up with MaxUp today.

I'm full of resources that are free actually on my website for people who want to advance their careers in one way or another. And I can tell you, I set a maximum. And in a couple of months we sent it to the bowl, but team, right now we are a team of more than 10 people. And we continue helping people just maximizing the potentials and with our experiences in something that I [00:14:00] really love about what I do is that majority of the people in my team are either students or recent graduates.

And I love that because not only am I contributing to helping people advance their careers through my services, but also developing my team, which are majority of them, students and recent graduates. And that  helps them understand what is corporate really expecting from them, from the learnings that I've had as I go through so many different corporate roles as well.

And so I really wanted to make a difference in the world and that's my mission. That's I always tell people if you were to ask me, what's my mission in life. I say, I want to make a difference in the world. One person at a time. And so if you see  that I make an impact in at least one person in whichever scenario, then I can tell you my mission is achieved.

So for everyone that's listening right now, if you have any idea and you want to start at idea, my suggestion would be, don't be afraid of starting the worst. And the hardest part of it all is starting. [00:15:00] I sat it alone. I had to do the marketing. I had to do everything that comes along and having startup but then my team eventually follow me

you know why? Because they saw my passion. If you're able to tell and show your passion to people, they'll follow you and they'll try to be where you are next to you. And this is not just for startups, this is for everything in life you want. If you want to get into a company or not career show that passion to people.

And they'll eventually either help you follow you or stand next to you.

Adam Coelho: Well said, and you mentioned that there were a lot of rejections along the way, and I imagine that this built up your skill of resilience or your capacity for resilience. Can you talk a little bit about, how you think about rejection resilience? 

 Stephanie Nuesi: So I like to say that rejection is redirection.  I learned just bullets from my mentor, but it really makes such a huge impact on people.

So what does it mean to be a redirection? [00:16:00] If you looked at rejection as the worst thing that happened to you in the word, you'll never pass through that stage and then what's going to happen. You're never. Get to where you want to be, because that was just one instance in life. I always like to say a temporary.

No, it's just what it is. It's temporary. It's not permanent. So if you got to reject that today, from whatever role, from whatever, even like idea that you have done, take it as a permanent no, right now might not be the right time or right now you might not have been prepared enough.

There might be tons of reasons why that rejection happened. Well, You should do really is take it from this perspective, what really went wrong, reflect on it. And I'll tell you my, I call it reject rejection cycle. I sit down, I think about what did I do wrong? Is there something that I did wrong though is the first question I ask, because sometimes you almost do everything 

and it might be external factor that caused a reduction. And that's something that people don't think about. [00:17:00] Sometimes it's something extra. Now that it's affecting that decision. No you, external I think about things that I might have done better. And then I say, okay, I didn't do it wrong, but I could have done it better.

And then I sit down and analyze, what can I do different for next time? And then I'd take some time to prepare for that next time. I don't do it right away knowing that the next day I go ahead and do it. I take some time to reflect and analyze that and continue going that path and continue doing that over and over.

It's I reject that again. And I would tell you, there is a stage though that I feel like people would just completely ignore any stage feel and reflect. you what that means. So feel meaning if you've got the rejection feeling, let it out, just stuck to someone, just, you really feel it.

And then the reflection part of which is reflect on what happen. Some people say, yeah, just move on from the rejection. But then you don't stop to think about and reflect on what exactly happened. And then you're going to keep that inside of you. It's going to, it's going to be there even though [00:18:00] you think you've moved on, it's going to be there and you're gonna remember that.

And so those are the stages that I go through rejection. And the point of that is that I've developed something. What I call my favorite word is the power of resilience. So I've been resilient in the way of which I got rejected from the five colleges that I applied to when I came here in 2015 and I came here to study.

So think about it for a second. You come to a country is completely new for you as a 17 year old. And you got rejected from the colleges that you apply to. And then now you have no direction for everyone listening right now. Have you ever  hit some point in your life where you have no direction. You're completely lost. You don't know where to go. That's exactly where I was. And so resilient really helped me in the sense of, I learned from those rejections to learn from that and develop  a growth mindset. So what does a growth mindset? A growth mindset really is you learn from failures.

So there's two types of mindsets here,  there's fixed mindset [00:19:00] and growth mindset. I used to have a fixed mindset. And for everyone who doesn't know what that is, fixed mindset is you failed at something. You think you're the worst failure in the world. There's nothing to fix and that's it, 

there's no other perspectives. Only your perspective matters. That's what fixed mindset is really about. Now. I have a healthy growth mindset by saying there's different perspectives in which I can look at something and I can also get outside perspectives to help me arrive to my final decision. And I developed that mindset as I went through every day, because I want everyone listening to this.

This is an everyday process and then an overnight process. You'll, we'll keep developing that throughout your entire life and that growth mindset alongside the power of that resilience that I build upon those rejections and failures was that helped me and shaped me into the person that I am today.

Adam Coelho: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. That makes a lot of sense.  Resilience is a topic that I think about a lot and talk about a lot, actually. I teach a course at Google called [00:20:00] Building Resilience Through Mindfulness and my boss, and I  developed this course and we share it with teams and teach them how to think about applying mindfulness to. To building resilience. Because like you said, things are going to happen in life. Failures are going to happen. Setbacks are going to happen, but the ones who think that they are permanent and long lasting and personal, they don't adapt.

They don't move forward. But when we think about failures as temporary and opportunities to learn and grow and move forward, that can be an accelerant for us and really help us to learn more about ourselves and to make us stronger going forward. And, I think a lot of what you were talking about with the, feeling and reflecting on what happened is mindfulness.

 Mindfulness is really all about bringing a kind curious awareness to our experience. And so if we got rejected [00:21:00] from something that is an experience and really success and failure are simply emotional experiences,   we feel emotions associated with failure in our body.

And so we can bring mindfulness to that and just experience what we're feeling. And we can bring mindfulness, that kind, curious awareness to our thoughts as well. What is the story I'm telling myself about this failure? Oh, I'm not good enough. I'll never be good enough. I always screw up, or I can learn from this.

I did a lot of things. Well, I can do some things better, but I can learn from this. And it's really critical that we all. Develop this capacity to be mindful of our thoughts, to recognize what is the story that I'm telling myself, because that creates our reality,  what we pay attention to creates our reality and the stories that we're telling ourselves, we play those stories out.

And so it's really cool to hear that's all built [00:22:00] into how you  help, job seekers people looking to improve their career and maximize their potential in your work.

Stephanie Nuesi: Absolutely. And something that you said that really resonated with me was Mindfulness goes alongside with feelings. Feeling something's not wrong. You have the total right. To feel angry and knowing sad, happy, whatever that feeling might be. You have the total rights to feel that. Now you'll decide what's wrong and what's right in your own journey. And so if you think that reacting to a certain theme in an annoying or mad or angry way, it's not really what you want to do.

And you want to change that the studio session,   you shouldn't let society or anything else dictates what's right. Or run about what you feel . And I wanted to say that because I've heard that so much from people that feeling is wrong.

It's the reaction. I want us to make that difference. Are there reactions and [00:23:00] feelings? I'm not the same thing right there. I think reactions are veiled upon your field. And so feeling by itself is no wrong. Is there a reaction that comes out on those feelings?

So I just want him to say that. 

Adam Coelho: Yeah, absolutely. And I'll add to that as well. course I teach at Google , which I would highly recommend. We'll get to talking about your career at Google now in a moment, but I would highly recommend taking this course and I'll even offer a course so that you and the other interns can do it.

It's called search inside yourself and it's all about emotional intelligence through mindfulness.  The first foundation of emotional intelligence is self-awareness and what do we develop awareness of our emotions. 

Like you said, emotions, aren't wrong. They're really not right or wrong. They are simply physiological experiences in our body  in response to something that happens.  Emotions are also information And so we can develop awareness of our emotions and use that [00:24:00] information.  So if we don't have strong emotional awareness and emotional intelligence, we are just blindly reacting to our emotions.

But if we can develop this mindfulness, this kind awareness create some space to see, oh, I'm feeling angry. I'm feeling like a failure. We don't have to just react to them. We can consider that information and then respond in a way that we think will be beneficial moving forward. And so I'm glad you called that out.

And I think it's so important because yeah there's this idea of don't feel or, stuff, your feelings in a sack. I feel like I've heard that before, and it's, if you cut that off, you're cutting off a huge source of information,  because there's these studies we talk about, in the program where our emotions in our body show up way before we're consciously aware of those feelings and those thoughts associated with them.

And so if we can learn to tap into our body through, [00:25:00] mindfulness practices, like the body scan, for instance, which we have on the podcast and people can look up, then you can start to use that information to guide how you think and act. And so I think it's really important. I called that out. So thank you.

Let's talk about what you're up to now. You're running max up and you  also  just finished up your second week interning at Google. Can you tell us a little bit about how that opportunity came about how you created that opportunity for yourself and what you hope to get out of the experience?

Stephanie Nuesi: Definitely. So I'll take you a couple of years back. So if you're listening by now, I want you to really close your eyes. And let me walk you through my journey. A couple of years ago I was walking by New York city and I was walking with my mom and there's Google office in New York city.

And I've always been a tech into CS. I love technology. And as I was growing up, I always use different types of [00:26:00] technologies, computers different stuffers. And I was always the tech person any single space that I was at. So it wasn't high school. Wasn't middle school. I was always said the go to person for any tech failures.

And I never realized how important that was for my specific career. And so I suppose, growing up, I helped my mom. So my mom was a single mom in my country. We were a family of two brothers and myself. So we're three and my mom has always happened up in ownership mindset. And so she has always had different businesses back in, in Dominica Republic.

And I remember I used to help her a lot with technology and also her finances. And when I combined both of those things together, I said, I am huge into help. Businesses the ballot, their finances, any county through automation. And that's so powerful when you think about that,  because that's definitely something that, that had a lot to do with what Google [00:27:00] is specifically.

So in, within their finance or. I come from very humble beginnings, very humble background. And I never thought that I had the opportunity to work at any big company at all. My, my look at the future kind of idea for me was I'll do college in my country.

I graduate and I will get a job or wherever I can find it and I'll help my family. Now. It's not quite what the future looked like for me. I didn't know back then, so when I came to this country, I still had that mindset of just go and get a job, whatever that might be. And my country, there's no such thing as internships.

There might be, but I was never introduced to that. So I didn't know that you could intern at companies.  I don't know what an internship look like. And for me, I started to hear that a lot within my college, everyone was just hustling and getting internships everywhere. And I was like, I might behind, 

I was really shocked because I didn't know any of this things. So going back to me, walking with my [00:28:00] mom in New York, we pass by the Google office and I have had conversations with my friends back then saying, oh, you could work at Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, all this, that companies go.

So you love tech and you love finance. And so I'm walking by the office in New York and I point that out to my mom and I said, mom, I'll work there one day. And she looked back at me and she said something that really Mike, everything familiar. And really, that was the point. You said, you're dreaming too big.  As a mother she was worried that I would have my dreams to beak that I wouldn't be able to achieve. And then I would feel disappointed and mom, I can do it because there's no such thing as dreams too big.  Dreams are achievable. That's all I said at the moment. I didn't know how it was going to go about it other than know how it was going to get there, but I knew it was going to get there and fast forward to now I'm here interning at the company that once my mom told me it was a dream that was too big.

And so I [00:29:00] remember having that conversation with my mom when I got the offer, telling her mom, I really did it. I really did it. And then she told me reliver not Stephanie. I didn't tell you that you were dreaming too big because I wanted to discourage you.

I tell you that because I need your potential and I need you to get there. And so that was like an aim, direct motivation  encouragement that she gave me right there and up to now. I remember like she was so proud of me because she doesn't know much about technology. She goes to Google every day.

She goes to something, they never us what Google is. And so seeing me  her youngest daughter, we were just 22 and now working at this big company,  she's always speechless. She says I don't know how you did it, but I just know that you did it. And that's what matters to me.

And so the reason why I always tell this story and I shared this on LinkedIn was because there is no such thing as dreaming too big. If you have a dream, you can go for it. And I don't want to say the cliche enough if I did it, you can do it. I think [00:30:00] like everyone has a different, scenario, not everyone goes in the same role, but I do want to tell you all is I am someone who literally just learning English.

And I faced so many challenges and I still went for it. And I got rejections and things like that, but there was something about me. I was, I never gave up. I never give up on myself because I knew I had the potential. I just needed to continue fixed in those little gaps that I had.

And so I want to really encourage everyone listening to golf for your dreams. If anything, they're too big, there might be wasting in which you can achieve that. 

And then  the second part of your question where you asked me, how do you do that? I might not look like that, but I am a very shy person and getting myself into uncomfortable situations like commuting to an in-person event where I was the only student in the room and just, talking to people in English and having conversations with people.

I was really scared. I did [00:31:00] not know how I got myself into very uncomfortable situations sometimes, but I beat it anyway. The fact that I got myself into an uncomfortable situation took a shyness out of me. 

And besides networking, I also did something that I don't think many people pay attention to, which is the bell being your brand on LinkedIn.

 How do you develop a brand? And so I said it posted on LinkedIn back in February of 2020 before the pandemic hit. And I was just talking about my story and all of a sudden I got huge attention. When you get a post that goes viral  and as a shy person like I am, I was happy, but I was shocked with this huge attention on me at the same time. I was like, should I really do this?

And then I just continued doing it. And I started creating posts on LinkedIn over and over. And then became consistent from April till December, and I started doing coffee chats [00:32:00] with employees at Google back in March of 2020. And I applied for the role in September. Mind you look at the dates.

I was doing coffee just in March yet the application didn't open until September. I was talking to  BOLD Interns by the time, like, how was your experience? What can I do to just become a better candidate? And I was doing mock interviews with people way before. So look at this. I didn't wait until the application open to do mock interviews and get prepared.

I did a six months in advance.  So that prepared me that when I got the opportunity to interview, I was ready. I was honestly ready. And so I want to live everyone. That's listening to this, and this is not just for Google specifically, but for every company, if you want to go through a role, don't wait until you hit the application button to start buffering your interviewing skills.

You're going to be using them either way. So if you spend some times doing the networking and doing this story , I head of time. I'll so much Eastern, less [00:33:00] stressful. Once you keep that application submit button. And so I want everyone to really invest some time in your career in the way that best work for you.

This works for me. I wouldn't say that it's going to work for everyone, but I can tell you that you can try. And if it works for you great. If it doesn't great as well, it was another part of your journey. 

Adam Coelho: Yeah. That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that story. It's quite inspiring. And actually I saw your post on LinkedIn and I reached out to you and, inviting you to share your story here because it is so inspiring.

  I think what you're describing, start early,  reach out, talk to people, network, learn,  ask them about their experience. I went through. Quite difficult time at Google where my job was eliminated and I had to find a new job leave Google. And, it was a really stressful time.

And what helped me was  reaching out to people and asking, Hey, can we chat? Can we talk about your experience? Even if there was no opportunity at that [00:34:00] time, the team I ultimately ended up on had no head count when I first reached out to a few people that I knew on the team.

But I talked with them and heard about their experience and the team and the work that they did. And then when the time came that there was headcount on the team, a friend of mine reached out and said, Hey, there's an opportunity on the team you might want to apply.

And then I had them introduce me to the hiring manager. And so another thing that I'll say that was really helpful. And I think that you're speaking about as well. It's just the power of putting yourself out there, connecting with people, sharing  with them, your vision  or what you're looking to do, whether it be a job or you're building a company, or you are hoping for something to happen in your life.

And the reason that's so powerful is because. The more people that know about what you're trying to do. The more people that are aware and looking for opportunities for you. And they're not actively looking right. But when they, when something comes up that might fit something that you're working on, [00:35:00] they'll reach out to you and let you know, and connect you with that opportunity.

And so really doesn't hurt at all to build your network and to build connections,  it's not about having as many connections as you can on LinkedIn, but it's about having meaningful connections with people. 

Stephanie Nuesi: So Lee and I just want to add to what you said, networking is a long-term investment.

It's not just about, the job that you have now, but what happens if you leave that job and you want to do a career pivot, or if you want to completely change careers, what's the first thing you're going to go. When that hap, when that happens, you're not brick. And so if you spend some time that we can meet people and even after you get your dream role continue just not working and building up those connections, because at the end of the day, genuine connections are term.

And what that means is that they're going to stay with you throughout your career and your ups and downs. And then once the time comes, you'll be able to help them. They'll be able to help you. So for everyone that's listening right now, Don see [00:36:00] networking as something that's fake done. See now break in as something that's unnatural.

See something, as you were talking to a friend, build those relationships now because they're going to help in the future. 

Adam Coelho: Absolutely. Yeah. And, I'm very impressed with the brand that you've built on LinkedIn. Once I connected with you, LinkedIn is just showing me everything that you're commenting on.

For some reason, they're like you like Stephanie, we got a lot of Stephanie for you. 

 My LinkedIn is a wreck, I made a change on my LinkedIn and now everyone thinks I left Google and a full-time blogger.  Literally it told everyone on my network that, Hey, Adam is now a blogger.

I could use something help on that.  I think you have something on your website that's a free resource for people. We can link that up in the show notes, but  what are your top tips for people to improve their brand or to think about creating their brand on LinkedIn.

Stephanie Nuesi: Great question. I like to say the LinkedIn is my best friend. So if my best friend is listening to this, don't mind it. But LinkedIn is such an important [00:37:00] tool. It helped me build up my brand and it helped me continue developing those relationships.

 There are a couple of things that I will say. The first thing is make sure your profile really tells your story. So if I go to your profile and I see your banner, your profile, picture your headline, your about section, your experiences. I want you to tell me who you are. So one of the first things I would say, and as you mentioned, I have full LinkedIn one-on-one guy that talks about, everything from the top down of what you need to improve and how you can improve it.

But I want to focus on. Making sure you understand these two concepts, there's a defense and there's an offense. I learned that from someone who I,heard on Club House.  What it means is really they're easing and where it's really the person doing the job on LinkedIn. So you're either posting, creating content or reaching out to recruiters and hiring managers.

And there's a defense. So defense is really what's happening on your LinkedIn while you're not alive. So with [00:38:00] that, there's a cool section on LinkedIn that talks about analytics and it tells you how many people are watching your profile every day, every week, every 90 days. How many are viewing your posts, engaging with you?

How many messages from recruiters and hiring managers are you getting? And so forth, it's a huge list. And so the reason why I mentioned this is because you want to have both of them working for you as much as you want to. Messaged recruiters and reminders and be on the offense. You want to make sure that the Dale, you're not on the offense, you're on the defense and you're not on LinkedIn, that LinkedIn is working for you, 

and that comes from developing the brand on your banner, your profile picture that your headline has those keywords that are important. And then everything else  self serve your story, who you are. Now I want to talk about  the brand and the brand, and really comes from commenting messaging and posting.

 You said it yourself when you went on my profile, you, so I was commented on different posts. Every single day I spend one hour. And my mornings. I have a specific time, I'd say 9:00 [00:39:00] AM Easter time. It's 6:00 AM Pacific time.

And basically what I do is  I go through my favorite influencers or, people are inspiring me on LinkedIn and they always suppose around that time. And what I do is I literally just go read a body, reflect on it, taking, and then I looked at . On their boats. I'm not expecting anything from them at all, but I really want to engage with them.

In a way I'm getting myself out there, I'm putting myself out there and I'm getting some sort of engagement from people that I really look up to and I'm letting them see me. That's important. Because they'll remember you. And there's something that I'm sure you would agree with this as well, Adam, it's not what you do for people is how you make them feel.

So it's not about the fact that I'm commenting on their posts. It's  how do I make them feel with what I say? If I go to an event, how do I make people feel? And the more special make them feel the better.  That's the first one will just come and do it.

And then the second one is  messaging. 

What are you saying in those messages? That's also part of your brand.  How you make them feel [00:40:00] all supplies here. Look at those messages that you're sending people and think about how are you really making them feel? Will you send that message that you sent your recruiter to yourself? How will you feel? I always like to think about it that way. 

So  think about how  you make them feel half them when you're writing those messages. And then the third being, and for me, one of the most important ones is posting. So whether that be creating content, sharing your story, writing articles in LinkedIn lives, posting videos, whatever type of content you think of, how do you make your audience feel?

It's really about the audience. Of course you want to make sure you're being true to yourself. And you're saying the stories that you want to save, but how are you making them feel? What do you see on those comments that you're getting on those posts? And that's how you really grow with LinkedIn.

 Going back to your question. I'll help you then we'll have you run. You know why? Because organically people follow you. And I think I told you this, Adam, in the beginning, your passion people will either follow you, stand next to you [00:41:00] or join you. And so on LinkedIn, I always like to say people either follow me, stand next to me or join me.

So a lot of people wanting to join me in max up and they did, or, a lot of you have wanted to join a community that I created and they did, or the love you want to do, just stand next to me means support me on the many things that I share on LinkedIn. And so if you follow those three things and you really showcase your passion  that's this the key.

Because if you're not passionate about what you're doing, you're not consistent. People are not going to be leaving. And if you lose people stressed, it's really how to get it. So be consistent about your passion and show up every day.

And I promise you'll get the results you want. 

Adam Coelho: Yeah. And when you talk about consistency, you mean 

Stephanie Nuesi: every day for yourself, not posting every day, because I wanted to make that clear right there. Every day for yourself. So if you choose that these two days, I'm not going to be on LinkedIn.

However, I won the defense, may my profile and everything to work for me, then that means also showing up. So why do you mean by consistency is [00:42:00] put something on your calendar, for example, of how many times are you going to post on LinkedIn? Or how many times are you going to create an event you need to be consistent with yourself and I will do it every week.

So if I say that every Monday I'll post. You need to do it every Monday. If you tell people, if you promise people, Hey, I'll start a series and I'll do this every Monday, you need to show up and do it. That's the worst thing. When you say something and you lose their trust because you don't do it. 

Adam Coelho: Yeah.

That's no good. That's no good. Yeah. So you said letting your profile tell your story. The way I think about it, every time I have a podcast episode, I posted on LinkedIn, I posted on Instagram. I posted on Facebook, cross my fingers and hope for the best.

And sometimes it works and I have my guests share as well, which actually helps a lot more because it's new to them. My people see it all the time. But it's weird because I'm not really looking for a job. Like I don't have a ton of recruiters reaching out to me probably because they think I'm a blogger, it, and that's not necessarily my goal, but developing authority. This podcast is really [00:43:00] an experiment around what do I want to do when I retire early from Google, whenever that will be that's what I'm moving towards with financial independence. But what do I want to do afterwards? And it's really all about teaching mindfulness, teaching financial independence, creating opportunity through connection. That's really what I'm all about. I'm not exactly clear on how to use LinkedIn to tell that story.

Obviously there's a low bar from where I'm at now, any thoughts there on. How to use LinkedIn as a tool to develop that authority. think it's very clear that you've done that. 

Stephanie Nuesi:  I'm glad that you mentioned that because there's two main types of LinkedIn profiles out there.

 One is in job seeker side. So the one that I just described previously was the job seeker use of LinkedIn. Now tell you. Thought leader disciplines. And so if you are someone who's not looking for a job and you're listening to this right now, you want all those to see you as a thought leader. And so what that means is what you do you need to showcase [00:44:00] that on your LinkedIn. And so I'll tell you an example. A lot of people are not using the feature section on LinkedIn. So what I would have, if I were someone who wants to put my brand out there, so not only I'm in my podcast, but I would have articles that I've read in, any awards that I've won and things like that showcase really what it is that I do.

Same thing for my banner. The banner is the reason why I mentioned banner so much because it really showcased how you are a thought leader. And then the other side of it, as well as what type of content you create is going to be different. That's a job seeker, you can tell your story, you can ask marketers to see you and things like that.

And that's a great way to get the brand. You want to become an expert on something unique? What are these really that you like? So in your case, it's mindfulness. If I were you, I would always be talking about different topics in the area of mindfulness and, getting people's thoughts and that creative Paul's getting people engaged into that.

And, starting to grow slowly into a thought leader in that area, getting people to fall in that area.  It's going to take some time before you see  [00:45:00] that engagement and that organic growth that you really look in to. But what I will tell you'll have what I call a tribe.

So they'll be people that follow you or join you in this area that you're really interested in showing. Because of what you post on LinkedIn, and you can even, do events like how you do a podcast. So you can do events, ringing up a Mason people that, have so much knowledge about mindfulness and different topics that you want to showcase.

But the point here is really making a niche of why are you an expert on, and then really putting that out there on a consistent basis. And then people will start following you based on that. And so not just your podcast in this case, but it will be anything else. And you can also be interested about I read an article and I'd love to know your opinions or my, when people on LinkedIn.

What do you think about this? Create that conversation, those discussions around that area, and that's how you really become a thought leader there,  it's not just how the LinkedIn looks like in terms of profiles, but then [00:46:00] showcases that you're an expert on that area. And that's how. Convert from like just a regular passive LinkedIn user into more of a thought leader.

 On LinkedIn people look up to thought leaders because of the value they provide. So if you put together a guide or a resource or something that helps people  be more mindful in the ways that they react to things or the way that they manage their lives, that's how you become a thought leader is the value you provide.

And then the expertise that you also share on your LinkedIn. 

Adam Coelho: Got it. Got it. Makes sense. And how often should I be creating content, once a week, or is it just about being consistent? Because the thought of creating more content when I'm already just trying to get these edited and out into the world seems very scary. 

Stephanie Nuesi: Yeah. Great question. So I would say  it really depends on your preferences and how natural it will be for you. If I were to be someone who just said it, creating content, I wouldn't suggest you to [00:47:00] go only five days a week. You will burn out very easily. And then the content you'll be posting out there will not feel natural.

You'll be dragging it. And that's the worst thing as a content creator. You never want to dragging yourself into creating done. So I'll say if you're just starting off, maybe try it out maybe once a week, if you see that you'd like it, if you see that people are engaging with you the way twice a week, 

there was one lane Friday,  just fine. Really? What works for you? And if you see that, oh, I can do, Saturday mornings, I'm a morning person, so I can go Saturday mornings. I can do, Fridays or I can do Mondays find these style, work for you. Do it for yourself. Main like the thing you provide for yourself.

But also take your audience in mind and then you'll start seeing, are you going to just natural with it? I can tell you, I personally don't post on the weekends. Very rarely.  You'll probably not see me on LinkedIn on the weekends. Those are my days for myself where I'm on defense.

Meaning I don't under share anything because I already [00:48:00] shared throughout the week. Usually five days a week, but that's just me. That's just what I want to do. It's  a little bit more natural for me. If you want to set over one day a week, that's totally fine. There's no right or wrong answer here.

Adam Coelho: That's great advice. Thank you for that. I think there's a lot that people can learn from both the job seeker advice that you gave and the thought leader  type of use of LinkedIn. 

So let's shift gears now into what I call the mindful fire final four. 

 The first question is what piece of advice would you give to someone looking for a job right now? 

Stephanie Nuesi: Great question.

The first thing I would say for everyone that's listening right now is understand that we're going through a global pandemic and the job market as everything else you've just seen, have been tremendously impacted by that. And so with that understanding, I want you to be good to yourself. That's my first ask.

Be good and kind to yourself. It's okay. If you get that rejection recently or if, if you didn't go through with an application, because life happens. Let me tell you it's [00:49:00] okay. Be kind to yourself because we're going through some being that it's affecting, not just you, but everyone in this world right now.

And you need to be kind enough to forgive yourself. Forgive yourself for many things that, you think you did wrong,  give yourself that little bit of a chance to say I can improve and I can be better. I just need to give myself a little bit more of a chance.

Sometimes we're so harsh on ourselves because we failed or for whatever reason we don't give ourselves that chance. I one YouTube today, really just give yourself that chance and be kind to you. And then  in the job search side. I want you to develop what I call the five stages.

So five stages release mentally. So be product growth mindset, be ready mentally and emotionally to go ahead and go all in with your job search  because you really can do anything else that I'm going to tell you if your mindset is not ready. I want to say that from the beginning mindset is the first one.

And then the second one really eats your portfolio [00:50:00] price. So your portfolio, meaning resume, interview skills, cover letter, project, whatever it is that it's, that you can really work on it by yourself. If you need help, seek for it. Make sure you have your portfolio ready. Number three is take some time to reflect.

Things that happened that you can improve. So say you read that there's three or four skills that you're missing, or you got feedback from an EMU that they're looking for different skills. I want you to really not pass on that or look over it. But really I want you to spend some times developing those skills.

So that next time you apply for a role, that's not going to be an excuse anymore. Now you're skilled on it now.

 And then the fourth and fifth one are the following. I want you to repeat step one, two and three with four and five.

I'm sure none of you were expecting that,  I'll tell you. Because after he done all of that and you apply for a role, there's two chances. There's two options there. You either get to the next round or you got to reject it. You're the get the job or you got [00:51:00] rejected rather there's two chances, but people really think that there's like black and white only.

Let me tell you there's gray. There's that middle space there where really you can hold upon. Number one, you might not be the best fit for that role, but if you kept in touch with the recruiter, they might tell you, Hey, we have another role available. Are you here now? I'll tell you a quick story, Adam, I was coaching a client recently and she got rejected for a role and a month later because she got in touch with a recruiter.

The recruiter reached back and say, Hey, we have a similar role that just opened here. And I think you really have the skills, and I love the fact that you kept being told you were the first Spencer that came to mind here, not you were the first person that came to mind when I was looking for people.

And then next to, She got the offer without having to interview again, she just got the offer for that role. That's why I want people to understand that the Reece is race-based between rejection and getting the role that we might've been missing. And [00:52:00] if you got rejected and stuff, five, when you do go back to step one mindset portfolio, go at it again.

Those are my five steps to getting to your job 

search. 

That's excellent advice. Excellent advice. And for me, I'll just add what's worked for me. Work your network, build your network and, reach out, ask for introductions, 

Because I found it to be much easier to get an interview when you're being referred by someone who already works there than if you're just applying out of the blue. When I went through that time where I had, a few months to find a new job, I was applying externally. I was applying internally.

And, when I was just applying, it was like going nowhere. And when I was being referred by people that worked for that company, it made a huge difference. And so this may be easier, further along in your career, but like you said, you're working your network, you're building your network now, and that is really valuable at any stage.

And so it's something that you can do now, even if you don't have those, years [00:53:00] of building relationships in the workplace, you can still do it right now. 

The second question is what piece of advice would you give to people early on the path to financial independence? 

Great question.

One of the first things I would say, if you're just starting to learn how to become financially independent, it's really about read a lot research, a lot, understand what are some different ways in which you can really become financially independent. I can tell you when I was reading about it, I read a lot of investing what are different types of investments? I'm huge in real estate. So I'd definitely read that a lot because I eventually went to own different houses and their rent different places, and that's going to be my long-term plan. But really research and watch videos and do whatever you need to read books about how to really be independent and then start slow.

So what I mean by that, I said it invest in stocks for example. And I went all in and that was not the best position. And so I'm not a financial advisor by any means, but I [00:54:00] can tell you that, just go with you what you want to do, but don't let pressure of others or pressure off that you really want to be independent right now.

You had the best of year, start slow. 

And the third is, I'm just going to say as well as we all know how to do a volume. I'm assuming if you don't know you're storing stuff, free templates and how to do a budget online.

And basically that's one of the first steps to really be independent, like knowing how to control and manage your money. And so if you're able to put together a budget that you follow with disciplining consistently every month, which you pretty much track your income, your expenses, which is what I do every month, that's one of the first steps of financial independence.

Because if, by the end of the video, the month that you have $10,000 that you know, are like just out there and you have no use of it. Consciously decide now I can use to send those dollars. I would choose 1000 for my 401k or, my life insurance plan. I'll use this 1000  my, next house  my next mortgage or whatever down payment that I want to do.

This 1000 will be for my [00:55:00] car in the future. And I'm going to use this car to generate income. And so if you think about it that way and how you can make money work for you. 

I don't know this is going to sound silly, but don't work for the money and make money work for you.

So if you make those decisions in which the money you invest now will eventually generate income from different streams for you. That's one of the , best ways to become financially independent. And I am not an expert on financial independence, but how they'll learn this  researching and starting about what I know personal budget after I had my money aside that I already know that I have it. You know what I do next? I found what are some of the best ways that I can invest this money. That's how you learn. So sometimes you just need to put yourself out there and really try your best with what you have.

Adam Coelho: Absolutely. Absolutely. And no, that's not cliche at all. Don't work for your money, let your money work for you because getting to financial independence, which is really defined as being able to allow your investments to spit off [00:56:00] enough earnings, to support your lifestyle. And your expenses is really about getting your money to work for you.

That's how you're going to get to that point,  it's not going to be by earning more and more that helps accelerate the path, but it's not. Enough on its own. And so getting that money working for you is really powerful. And for you, I don't know if you've heard of this book, but I mentioned it on the podcast all the time.

And it really changed my whole way of thinking about money because I was like five years into my career and being like, I need to do something with this money that I'm making, I don't know what I'm going to do with it. This book that helped me with that is called the simple path to wealth by JL Collins.

It doesn't talk a lot about real estate. It touches on real estate. That's one approach that you can take. A lot of people do that. There's another approach, which is really all about index investing, buying the whole market,  instead of buying individual stocks, which is a lot more risky.

 I'd encourage everyone here to read that book and  think about how they can start to move forward, [00:57:00] small steps, as you said really can make a huge difference and it all starts. Knowing where you're spending your money, knowing how much your life costs, knowing how much income you're bringing in, what is that gap?

And then, like you said, as you start educating yourself, you can take that money and start to invest it in the ways that make sense for your life. And so I really appreciate that advice. 

The third question is what piece of advice would you give to people getting started with the concepts of meditation and or mindfulness?

Stephanie Nuesi: One of my favorite things to say when it comes to, to mindfulness and getting yourself ready mentally is listen to your mind, listen to your body. I think that sometimes we go in life, just going with things as we go, and  we just don't stop. And I want everyone should really, if you're listening to this, just stop for a second and then listen to the signs of your body.

You listen to the science of your mind and just really take some time to [00:58:00] do something about those signs. Whether that be, if you want to take a trip, a road trip, or a trip anywhere it is for one day and just really go skate from the word. And if that's what you're really feeling, I want you to follow and listen to those signs.

 I personally wake up every day. I'd take a cup of tea and I completely blind pal. And I just forget about everything. Try my best to stay without any thoughts for however I can keep. And you just, and it becomes a little bit better as you do it every day. For everyone who just starting off to start listening to their minds and starting to listen a little bit more to their bodies.

I'll tell you the following fine. What really works for you. So try meditation ones. If you feel like it's no helping drive twice, try three times drive four times. And if you feel like at all, it's just not something for you. Hey, there are other ways in which you can still listen to your mind. So [00:59:00] there's many podcasts like this one.

There's so many videos out there that really talks about how to listen to your mind and what things to do with that. If you really want to go into meditation,  here are a few tips that I will give you, find a space in your house or somewhere where you're completely alone. And it's just you and your mind, the best company for you when you're meditating, it's your mind.

It really is. And I promise you. That if you  invest some time into helping yourself through your mind, you're going to feel like a whole new person every day that I wake up and I do the things that I do to help my mind just be more healthy. I feel like a whole new person. 

And so my ending question for all of you, why is it that we spend so much money, time, energy, whatever you want to call it into external factors.

And  we forget about what really drives us every single day, which is here our minds. And so I really [01:00:00] want us to think about that for a second and really put some time and. Honing and  developing and just being more mindful as you go through life and trust me, it will not just help you, I'll help everyone around you.

And you'll  just leave a more peaceful life as you go, because there's many things going on in the world right now. But if you really want to be part of the change, it really starts with you, how you react to things, how empathetic you are when you're walking in the streets and you're seeing someone that needs help how you react to the news. All those things really come from within it comes from your mind. And so if you put some time into developing the mindset, I promise see it will make a difference. And that difference that you want to see really starts with you.

Adam Coelho: Absolutely. Yeah. It's all about self-awareness . And so the more that we can tune into our minds, our bodies, the more we can get to know ourselves and develop that self-awareness and then use that to move [01:01:00] forward and create the difference that we want to create. Yeah. So thank you for sharing that.

And the last question is how can people connect with you online and learn more about what you're working on? 

Stephanie Nuesi: So if you want to connect with me, you can find me on LinkedIn, us, Stephanie Nuesi. My Instagram is also Stephanie Nuesi pretty much, and every social media you'll find me and Stephanie Nuesi

 I know that we're also going to link up some resources that I have on my website. Feel free to use those and better yourself in any way you can. And if you guys have any questions I'll also leave the email here so that you can connect with me as well. Adam, this was great. I really appreciate you for having me here.

I hope that everyone to listen to this, no, just listen to it, but take one action step from anything that we said today and let us know how it goes, that Adam knows how to help you.

Adam Coelho: Thank you so much, Stephanie, for joining me on the podcast, it was really wonderful to connect with you and to dive into your story and to have you share some very practical tips on how people [01:02:00] can move forward in the ways they want to move forward with their life, whether that be a new job or new business like you've created for yourself.

And so thank you very much for joining me on the podcast today. 

Stephanie Nuesi: Thanks for having me, Adam. 

Adam Coelho: Thanks so much for joining me on today's episode of the mindful fire podcast.

I hope you enjoyed this conversation with my new friend, Stephanie Nuesi. 

As a reminder, you can find the full show notes for today's episode mindfulfire.org/33 

 If you got value from today's episode, make sure to hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this, this just lets the platforms know you're getting value from the episodes and you want to be here when I produce additional content.

And if you'd like to help spread the word about the podcast, please leave a five star written review on apple podcasts. 

Thanks again. And I'll catch you next time on the mindful fire podcast.