Live, Local, Call-In Talk Radio in Charleston, WV: Who's Gonna Get The Franchise On That Monopoly?

"If you can't be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in." (Law 2 of Ries and Trout's 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

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Apparently radio executives haven't read Ries and Trout's 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. If they had, they wouldn't keep pouring money into stations that are the number 3 rock or country stations in their markets when they could be using these under-performing stations to create a new category in which they can be number one.

John Raese's West Virginia Radio Corporation handed some enterprising competitor a gift when they fired Agnello and Johnson and gave up the monopoly they  had on live, call-in talk radio in the Charleston market. Perhaps other radio companies like Bristol Broadcasting and LM Communications have not yet opened the gift because they are afraid West Virginia Radio Corp's Mike Buxser isn't finished giving Mike Agnello "second chances". 

I keep hoping Scott Finn at West Virginia Public Broadcasting will accept the gift of having the monopoly on live, local, call-in talk radio. I know that Secretary Kay Goodwin, who sits on WVPB's governing board, is a fan of talk radio and WV Public Radio can actually put on a statewide show. If they don't want to go head to head against Hoppy Kercheval in the morning, they can take the old Johnson-Agnello slot from 3 to 6. 

But I'd be OK if the new GM at LM Communications, Dotsy Klei,  did it or if Mike Robinson at Bristol Broadcasting did it. 

Somebody needs to do it. Live, local, call-in talk radio.  It's a category somebody gets to have all to themselves in Charleston if they'll just accept the gift given them by John Raese and Mike Buxser. 

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Too Clever By Half: Job Seekers Disguised As Self-Employed

"Do headhunters know that self-employed guys like me are also job seekers?"

I get that question a lot and the answer is "yes", headhunters are well aware that some job seekers are disguised as self-employed. In fact, many job seekers are so well-disguised that their own friends and acquaintances don't know they'd drop the self-employed subterfuge and accept a "real job" in a heartbeat. 

I can't help you if you aren't honest with yourself but here's my advice to people who may not be getting the benefit of word-of-mouth referrals to potential employers because their "I'm starting my own business" ruse has worked too well: Go to my archive and read my last two posts. Your Linkedin profile can still say you are a self-employed consultant and you can still hand out business cards but it's time you come clean with your network of friends, colleagues and acquaintances. You can only exploit employers' clear preference for candidates who aren't total strangers to them (see what I mean when you read my last two posts) if you get introduced by a mutual friend. That won't happen if your friends all think you're prosperous and happy as a self-employed consultant.

"But if I land some contractor work or some short-term consulting gigs isn't there a chance that one of my clients will hire me full-time?" many ask me.

Yes, of course, clients sometimes hire their consultants full-time but this is a tricky high wire act to walk because, as any headhunter will tell you, employers are like insecure teenage boys who won't ask the pretty girl to the dance until they are sure her answer will be yes. If you're too convincing as a prosperous, happy consultant your clients won't ask you to work for them because they are afraid you'll say no.

Here's the bottom line for job seekers disguised as self-employed: Whatever you say on your Linkedin profile, make sure you read and comply with the advice I gave in my last two posts. 

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What To Do When You're Skilled, Popular, Experienced And Unemployed

In yesterday's post I began answering the question "Why are so many skilled, experienced, popular, well-connected people unemployed?" I pointed out that in my 20 years of headhunting I've never seen a client hire somebody who was a total stranger to them if there was a suitable non-stranger available. I said if you are experienced, skilled, popular, well-connected and unemployed it's likely because you are a stranger to the people who can hire you and that you have to get out of the stranger category where your candidacy will move to the top of the heap. I said that becoming a non-stranger is the unfair advantage you need and that the way you get that unfair advantage is by being introduced to the people who can hire you by people you already know.  I said you need to stop spending your time on the low percentage strategy of sending resumes to strangers and spend a week making sure everybody you know understands your skills and experiences so they can have an epiphany and introduce you to somebody who can hire you. Today, I want too tell you how to make that happen.

First - and this is the boring part - I want you to make a list of everybody you know who doesn't live in a cave and who might know people who can hire you. List them by category. Neighbors. People you serve on a board with. People you went to school with. People you used to work with. People who called on you when you had a job. You get the idea. I ask you to categorize people because it helps you to remember people you might not otherwise think of. 

Then I want you to make a list of employers you think should be interested in hiring you, employers who need people like you.

Now I want you to open up your Linkedin account, your personal address book, your business card file and any other place you might have names and contact info on people who might be able to introduce you to hiring managers at your preferred employers and I want you to figure out how you're already networked to the employers you think should hire you.

Remember what I told you yesterday: in my 20 years of collecting ridiculous fees from clients not once has any client ever hired a total stranger. I told you that I have made a lot of money presenting the second-best or even third-best candidate to employers who just can't bring themselves to hire strangers. 

Who can introduce you to people who might hire you? Who can move you out of that stranger category and get you into the non-stranger category which is the category employers hire from?

Start contacting these people and telling them what you do. Don't assume they know. Tell them. 

Do this in person wherever possible. Meet them for a coffee or lunch so you can see the look in their eyes as you describe what you do. By seeing their body language and facial expressions you can literally see when you've said something that registers. Their eyes widen, they lean forward. Likewise, when you have this conversation in person you can see that deer-in-the-headlights expression people get when they don't understand what you just said. Talking to your colleagues and acquaintances in person gives you the chance to learn how to tell your story. 

\When I do live workshops I often mention my friend Jeff who learned that people don't understand when he says he's a "business analyst" so he explains to them that his company pays him to figure out how to reduce headcount and that if he doesn't do it they'll just hire somebody else who will. Nervous laughter, but you get the idea. Tell people what you actually do. Help them visualize you at work. 

When you call up somebody you haven't spoken to in 10 years, just ask for job search advice. You'll be surprised at who wants to help you. Sometimes it's the guy you once worked with that you think didn't like you - perhaps somebody you once fired or somebody you once passed over for a promotion. If you're not a jerk, you have fans out there you don't even know about. One of these fans can introduce you to your next boss.

I once "interviewed" for a job while the guy who actually got the job was literally moving into his new office right across the hall from where I was interviewing. That's the position y ou are in right now. While you're sweating over the 100th revision of your resume and sitting in the lobby waiting to talk to a total stranger, the guy who will actually get the job is sitting with the guy you're waiting to interview with being introduced to him by their mutual friend. 

Quit being a stranger. Quit sending resumes to strangers and begging strangers for an interview. Yes, people occasionally get jobs this way but nearly 100% of the professional jobs are filled by people who have been introduced to their next boss by somebody they both know. I call this "getting a professional co-signer". If somebody goes out on a limb and risks his/her relationship with the employer by introducing you, that person has, in effect, co-signed for you. The successful candidate is a friend of a friend, not a stranger. Stop being a stranger. 

I once got $26K in fees just because I called a guy whose business card I had in a book. 

Make your lists, make your calls. Somebody you already know can introduce you to your next boss.

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Why Popular, Well-Connected Job Seekers Remain Unemployed (And What They Need to Do About It)

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

If you're a job seeker, a lot of people are trying to make money from your misery which is why it's difficult to get the truth about why sending out thousands of resumes and completing thousands of online applications hasn't landed you a job. The problem is, there's no money in telling you the truth: that what you've been doing is what I call a low percentage job seeking play. 

And what you've been doing isn't working so it's time for you to realize that of you keep doing what you're doing you'll keep getting the same results you've been getting. 

And Albert Einstein says you're insane.

Stop being insane. Abandon your low percentage strategy and adopt the time-tested, high percentage job seeking strategy of getting somebody you already know to introduce you to your next boss. 

Stop believing the lies of people who perpetuate the low percentage job seeking strategy because it's the one that enables them to make money from your misery - people who charge you a fee for re-writing your resume or teaching you how to interview or people who sell you job "leads". 

Don't double down on what hasn't worked and has never worked very well. Change strategies. I'll tell you how to do it and I won't charge you a dime. I'm not trying to monetize your misery. I just want to get you to stop doing what hasn't worked and start doing what has worked for millions of people. Get somebody you already know to arrange an introduction with somebody who can hire you.

I've often said that your first clue you aren't going to get a job is that you have to fill out an application, send in a resume and interview for that job. Yes, people sometimes get jobs that way but nearly 100% or white collar jobs are filled by somebody whose name was given to the employer by a mutual friend.

When I do job seeker workshops I explain this through anecdotes and stories that illustrate what I mean but here's a fact that, when "backward-engineered" and properly analyzed, shows you why you should stop sending resumes to strangers and start spending that time talking to your friends, your former co-workers, your former suppliers, people you went to school with, people you serve on a board with, people whose kids know your kids, etc. 

Why do experienced, well-connected, popular people remain unemployed? Yes, ageism is certainly real but that's not where I want to go right now. I want to tell you something that you can actually use to get a job and here it is: if you're still unemployed after sending thousands of resumes in spite of your popularity and connections and professional experience my 20 years of headhunting experience suggests it's probably because the people who could introduce you to somebody who can hire you have no idea what your skills are and what you did in your last job, therefore, they have no idea how to recognize an employer who would be able to hire you - even though they may know such an employer. 

In 20 years of headhunting I've never seen a client hire a total stranger if a suitable non-stranger was available. Not once. I've been paid ridiculous sums of money to "find" candidates who were already professionally connected to the client. And yes, my clients expected me to find them people the couldn't find by running an ad or other conventional job search means but in 20 years of working with clients not once have any of my clients ever hired a stranger if a suitable non-stranger was available. So I actually got paid for bringing clients people they already knew. I actually got paid for giving them a "suitable" non-stranger, not the best candidate I found. 

I'm sure that somewhere there is a company that actually hired a total stranger for a white collar job but I have never seen it happen. 

Your odds of getting hired go way up if you simply get out of the "stranger" category and into the non-stranger category because, regardless what they say, employers are usually not meritocratic in their hiring. In 2 decades of headhunting, clients have never hired the best candidate I brought them unless they discovered they were already networked to him in some way. I've made a lot of big fees off the second-best or the third-best candidate because those "suitable" candidates were in the non-stranger category.

I'll tell you how to do it in my next post. 

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St. Albans Neighborhood Watch Fact Sheet

St. Albans has about 11,000 people distributed more or less evenly throughout 9 wards.

Of those 9 wards, about 3 of them have active neighborhood watch programs, 3 have a handful of people meeting monthly and 3 have no program at all.

A citywide St. Albans Neighborhood Watch Advisory Board consisting of city council members, police and neighborhood watch volunteers has been formed to help struggling and startup watch programs succeed. 

This citywide board meets the 3rd Friday of each month.

St. Albans citizens who wish to form a neighborhood watch and would like assistance from the citywide board can email JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com or call (304) 550-6710.

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Need A Job? Ask Everybody You Know For Their Job Seeking Advice

When you need a job, don't be like the guy who had dinner with a dozen professionals and didn't tell anybody he needed a job.

The chances are very good that somebody at the table could have introduced him to his next boss had he only mentioned that he was looking for a job.

Is it pride that prevents unemployed people from taking advantage of such opportunities?

According to someone I counseled over lunch, telling your friends and acquaintances you're looking for a job feels too much like "selling".

Here's what I told my friend: then don't "sell", ask for "advice".

After all, my friend was able to call me up and ask me for advice - proof that  he knows how to do that. He survived an entire lunch hour talking with me about his job search - proof that asking for advice won't kill you.

So don't sell yourself to your acquaintances, just tell them you need their advice. They'll be flattered. They won't want to fail you. They'll ask you questions, you'll answer and then something magical will happen: one of your acquaintances will get wide eyed and exclaim "I know who you need to talk to."

That's when you say, "Can you arrange an introduction?"

Don't ask for "leads", ask for introductions.

Somebody you already know can introduce you to your next boss.

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When It Comes To Getting Hired, Being A Friend Of A Friend Beats Being The Best Candidate

In yesterday's post I said something I've said in this blog dozens of times before: I said that  companies don't always hire the best candidate. In fact, they often pass over a great candidate who's still in the "stranger" category to hire a less qualified candidate who is not a stranger - somebody who is "networked" to the employer through another person. 

When it comes to getting a job, being a friend of a friend is way better than being the best candidate. 

Employers like to portray themselves as meritocracies where the best candidates always get hired but in all my years collecting ridiculous fees for "finding" candidates for employers I've never once placed a candidate with a client who wasn't already networked to the person they ended up hiring. Not once. Even when I conducted nationwide searches for big publicly-traded companies and brought them A+ candidates, they still hired B+ candidates to whom they were networked instead of the A+ stranger. And I still got paid. It's crazy. 

So what's the lesson for job seekers? Simple: You have to get out of the "stranger" category. You don't have to be the employer's best buddy but you do have to get out of the stranger category. The easiest way to do that is to figure out who you already know who can introduce you to the employer thus moving you from the "stranger" category to the friend-of-a-friend category.

if your friends aren't introducing you to people who can hire you, ask them if they know what you did when you were working, before your career blew up. Chances are, they don't know anything about your skills, experience or knowledge. So tell them. Instead of spending 8 hours a day sending resumes to strangers who are just going to hire a friend-of-a-friend anyway, spend 8 hours a day telling your friends and acquaintances what you do and what you're looking for. Somebody you already know can introduce you to your next boss but they won't do it until you tell them how to recognize the right company or the right job for you.

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Somebody Jim Kerrigan Already Knows Can Introduce Him To His Next Boss

Somebody Jim Kerrigan already knows can introduce Jim to his next boss. Jim would like that very much. But before that can happen, the person with the power to introduce Jim Kerrigan to his next boss would have to be able to recognize what kind of a job opening is right for Jim.  He'd have to know Jim's transferable skills. He'd have to know what Jim did with most of his adult life and what it all means.

Jim's Linkedin profile says he was an "Associate Dean of Students" but, besides those of you who work in academia, who really knows what an "Associate Dean of Students" does and what skills this title suggests?

Oh, yeah, many of my readers know Jim Kerrigan is a member of the Kanawha County Democratic Executive Committee and that he cooks great chili and that he loves his dog, Molly Collie, and that he is a yinzer and a bon vivant but none of Jim's "networking" really helps Jim with his job search until somebody figures out what Jim's transferable skills are,  right?

Like I said, somebody Jim Kerrigan already knows can introduce him to his next boss. Jim would like that very much. Jim probably has friends who would like to help him out. But before anybody can introduce Jim to his next boss, somebody has to figure out what Jim's SKEs - skills, knowledge,experience - are. 

As a recovering headhunter I can tell you that employers almost never hire a total stranger. Yeah, they hire headhunters to "find" them people they don't know but they end up actually hiring people they could have found on their own without the headhunter. When you  talk to Jim, ask him about the times I got paid ridiculous sums of money for "finding" clients somebody they already knew. Ask him how any times they passed over the  best candidate I brought them because nobody in the organization knew the person. Yeah, I got paid whether they hired my best "find" or my 2nd best find but the point is, they pass over the best candidate if he's a stranger and they hire the guy who isn't a stranger.

Don't let Jim Kerrigan be the stranger. Make him a friend of a friend.  Introduce him to his next boss. 

And if you don't know Jim Kerrigan but you, too, are one of those guys everybody thinks they know but nobody is introducing to somebody who can hire you, well, stop sending your resume to strangers and start educating your friends about what you did before your career blew up. Somebody you already know can introduce you to your next boss.

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Galloway V Greece: No Matter What The Supreme Court Decides, You'll Know That This Case Is About A Town Council That Chose The One Use Of Prayer That Would Make Some Of Its Citizens Feel Unwelcome At Town Government Meetings

The women behind the Galloway V. Greece case, Linda Stephens and Susan Galloway, have told reporters they would not have felt like outcasts at their own town meetings if council opened with a generic prayer rather than a Christian prayer. And, of course, Galloway, who is Jewish, and Stephens, who is atheist, could not be offended or made to feel as if their town council wanted to alienate them if meetings opened with a moment of silence or even if the Christians obeyed their own Bible and did their praying in secret (Matthew 6:6). 

But the town council of Greece, NY, chose the one prayer option that made an atheist and a Jew feel unwelcome and alien in their own town government meetings: government meetings are opened with a Christian prayer offered up by a Christian clergyman.There's no mistaking Greece town council's intent. These prayers are meant to send a message to Jews like Galloway and atheists like Stephens that non-Christians are unwelcome at town  meetings.

As the US Supreme Court hears arguments and debates the constitutionality of the Galloway V Greece case, journalists, judges, lawyers and historians across the nation will debate the constitutionality of opening town council  meetings with Christian prayer as if constitutionality is all that matters here. But you'll know the truth:  this case isn't just about the constitutionality of Greece, New York's practice of opening government meetings with Christian prayer. You'll know that this case is really about a town council that has chosen the one prayer policy that would make Galloway and Stephens feel unwelcome at their own town  meetings.

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Shame On All City Governments That Use Audible, Public Christian Prayers To Make non-Christians Feel Unwelcome In Their Own Council Chambers

The US Supreme Court is discussing the case of  Town of Greece V. Galloway. At issue is whether it's constitutional for the tiny town of Greece, NY, to open city council meetings with Christian prayers.

I'm neither a lawyer nor a judge so I won't opine on whether or not prayers before city council meetings are constitutional but here's what I know: Citizens who don't subscribe to the religion or pray to the god of the one leading in prayer should not be made to feel like outsiders when they go to a city council meeting and try to exercise their right to participate in community life. Shame on Greece, NY for letting this go all the way to the Supreme Court.

Shame on all cities that disenfranchise non-Christian citizens by subjecting them to public Christian prayers.

Make no mistake about it, cities that open council meetings with public Christian prayers are not doing so because they  think their God can only hear them  if they pray audibly  from council chambers; they insist on praying out loud in council chambers precisely because they want to make non-Christians uncomfortable and unwelcome in their own city government meetings. 

If public, audible Christian  prayers before city council meetings are not intended to disenfranchise non-Christians, then why not encourage Christians to pray silently before the meeting? Even a moment of silence in which believers could have the option of silent prayer to the god of their choice would be OK.

Shame on all city governments that use audible, public Christian prayers to make non-Christians feel unwelcome in their own council chambers. Even if the SCOTUS finds it constitutional for city councils to open meetings with audible Christian prayers, cities should stop using prayer to make their non-Christian citizens feel unwelcome in their own city government meetings.

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Use This Little Known Fact To Increase Your Job Seeking Odds

I recently resigned from the Kanawha County Workforce Investment Board but I have not resigned from being a recovering headhunter, "career night panelist", newspaper employment writer or jobseeker workshop presenter so I occasionally like to offer job seeking advice - which occasionally means exploding some of the myths about job-seeking.

One of those myths is the one that says "Jobseeking is a numbers game - the more resumes you send and the more interviews you go on the higher your chances of getting a job."

It's a half-truth. Yes, of course, sending out more resumes increases your odds but what the "numbers game" advocates don't address is this: if you're sending your resumes to strangers instead of people you already know, you're still playing a low percentage game no matter how many resumes you send. 

Let me reveal one of those counterintuitive headhunter facts that most headhunters don't want to admit and human resources directors work very hard to conceal: while it's not impossible to get a job with a company to which you are not already networked in some way, most companies hire very few total strangers so your odds of getting hired go way up if you focus on places where you have some sort of an "in". It doesn't matter if that connection is a weak  one. 

Let this fact sink in: companies paid me ridiculous fees to bring them people to whom they were already networked and could have "found" on their own without my services. In fact, in all the years I charged ridiculous fees to "find" managers or VPs or sales reps or whatever for clients, I never placed a total stranger with a client; turns out, every candidate I placed was already networked to the client in some way and that client could have "found" this candidate on their own and saved the 5 figure fee they paid me.

So let's backward engineer this and see how every jobseeker can learn how to play the high percentage game of getting hired by people in your network instead of the low percentage game of trying to get hired by total strangers. 

Companies have a very, very strong bias for hiring people from their own networks. Remember what I said: in all my years of charging outrageous fees for "finding" people my clients could have found in their own networks if they tried, I never placed one candidate in a company where he didn't already have a connection - somebody he went to college with but hadn't seen in 15 years or somebody who is friends with a friend. 

Somebody you already know is more likely to hire you or introduce you to your next boss than is a total stranger who gets your resume via internet. On a recent radio talk show job-seeking expert, David Rawles, underscored the point that a very low percentage of new hires happen as a result of job-seekers scouring the internet for a new job. 

Your time is better spent within your own existing network of friends, relatives and acquaintances. Especially acquaintances. In fact, the odds of being introduced to your next boss or even being hired by someone you don't know well are higher than your odds of being helped by a close friend because you have so many acquaintances. You may only have an inner circle of a dozen or so people but you may have hundreds of colleagues, former co-workers, old college buddies and casual acquaintances who can introduce you to your next boss. 

So this week instead of playing the low percentage game of sending resumes to strangers, play this high percentage game instead: make a list of everybody you know from anywhere and start systematically and exhaustively contacting each one and asking them who they can introduce you to who might need to hire a person with your skills, knowledge and experience. Make sure your acquaintances know what you do. don't give 'em job titles, give 'em a description of the things you do and have done. Don't say "I'm a business analyst". The only people who know what a business analyst does are other business analysts. Instead, describe the work you do. Here's an example: I have a friend who is a business analyst and when he's trying to explain what he does all day he tells people he figures out the business case for laying people off and reducing head count and replacing this work with contractors or outsourcing. Grim, but descriptive and, as he says, if he doesn't do it somebody else will.

By the way, it's best to have this conversation over lunch or coffee, eyeball to eyeball, instead of via email or even phone. That way, you can see it in their face when you've said something they understand.

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Dining With The Young Atheists

I don't always dine with strangers half my age but when I do, I like to dine with the young Kanawha Valley atheists. 

Last night I was reminded of why. I mentioned the work of Robert Axelrod and the topic of game theory to a Calvinistic, fundamentalist friend and she asked me to explain it in a few words if I could. Well, I couldn't do it in a few words so I found a short YouTube and sent her the link. According to my fundamentalist friend, Axelrod's work had already been revealed in the Bible where there is nothing new under the sun. Her subsequent remarks demonstrated that she had entirely missed the point of Axelrod's game theory work. Her belief that the Bible contains all truth had immunized her from infection by what fundamentalists call "man's wisdom".

Most of my old friends are of the inoculated-against-extra biblical-things variety so it's nice to go have dinner with the young atheists where I can discuss politics or current events or any other topic without someone ruining the whole conversation with sentences that begin, "Well, my Bible says...." .There were three physicists at the table last month and not one of them ever destroyed a perfectly good conversation by citing  the Bible. 

My regular readers sometimes complain to me that I don't reveal much personal information in my blog, that I am sort of the exact opposite of Charleston Gazette columnist,  Karin Fuller, who tells us way more than we want to know about not only herself but whoever she happens to be dating of married to at the moment but here's something just a little personal: on my way to these dinners with the young atheists I listen to my collection of 1970s and 80s contemporary Christian and "Jesus Rock" CDs. Yeah, I recently dug them out of storage because I hadn't listened to them in decades and because some of the artists are genuinely great musicians. Daniel Amos, Larry Norman, Love Song, Phil Keaggy. With the exception of smells, nothing else puts me in a time machine aimed at my embarrassing past like music so when I arrive at the designated restaurant where I will dine with the young atheists of the Kanawha, I am humbly reminded that I am a former writer for Christian magazines, a former Bible College student, a former Calvinist preacher and that I, too, used to be the kind of person I wouldn't want to engage in conversation.

Most of the young atheists with whom I sometimes dine tell me that they have been atheists for as long as they can remember. I envy them. They've spent a lifetime being curious and open-minded. But I still think Phil Keaggy is as fine a rock guitarist as Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton and that Daniel Amos' "Horrendous Disc" and "Alarma" albums were really cool if you don't think about the Jesus lyrics.  

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