Dec. 30, 2025

Project-Manage Your Career and Stop Waiting to Be Noticed

Project-Manage Your Career and Stop Waiting to Be Noticed

This is one of the most empowering career wake-up calls you’ll ever hear. If you’ve ever been laid off, overlooked, or quietly sidelined at work, you need this episode. What if the most important project you’ll ever manage is you? This conversation...

This is one of the most empowering career wake-up calls you’ll ever hear.

If you’ve ever been laid off, overlooked, or quietly sidelined at work, you need this episode.

What if the most important project you’ll ever manage is you?

This conversation dares you to stop waiting for a promotion, a “perfect” opportunity, or someone else’s permission—and start running your life with the same clarity, discipline, and urgency you’d bring to a multimillion-dollar project.

Beyond Confidence is broadcast live Tuesdays at 10AM ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Beyond Confidence TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).

Beyond Confidence Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beyond-confidence--1885197/support.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.279
The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are

2
00:00:02.279 --> 00:00:04.160
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not

3
00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:07.160
those of W four WN Radio It's employees or affiliates.

4
00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:10.839
We make no recommendations or endorsement for radio show programs, services,

5
00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:13.960
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability,

6
00:00:14.039 --> 00:00:16.920
explicit or implied shall be extended to W four WN

7
00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.079
Radio It's employees or affiliates. Any questions or common should

8
00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:22.239
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing

9
00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:23.679
W four WN Radio.

10
00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:29.079
This is Beyond Confidence with your host w Park. Do

11
00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:31.280
you want to live a more fulfilling life? Do you

12
00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:34.200
want to live your legacy and achieve your personal, professional,

13
00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:38.479
and financial goals? Well? Coming up on ZVO parks Beyond Confidence,

14
00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:42.119
you will hear real stories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and achievers

15
00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:45.600
who have stepped into discomfort, shattered their status quo, and

16
00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:48.119
are living the life they want. You will learn how

17
00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:52.039
relationships are the key to achieving your aspirations and financial goals.

18
00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:54.960
Moving your career business forward does not have to happen

19
00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:57.560
at the expense of your personal or family life or

20
00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:01.960
vice versa. Learn more at www. Don't Divpork dot com

21
00:01:02.039 --> 00:01:05.519
and you can connect with div ants Contact Dants, divpark

22
00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:09.359
dot com. This is beyond confidence and now here's your host,

23
00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:10.480
div Parnk.

24
00:01:11.799 --> 00:01:16.280
Good morning listeners. Hope you had wonderful holidays and got

25
00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:23.120
some time to relax, recharge, recalibrate, spend time with your

26
00:01:23.159 --> 00:01:26.359
loved ones. Because these are the memories that carry us

27
00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:32.879
through the whole year. So what if the most important

28
00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:35.560
project you ever managed is you?

29
00:01:36.439 --> 00:01:38.920
And that's what we're going to be talking about today.

30
00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:43.400
Welcome Curtis Grey.

31
00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:46.480
Do you thanks for having me? My friend? Really appreciate it.

32
00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:49.159
Oh, it's a pleasure to have you on the show.

33
00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:51.400
So Curtis, we usually.

34
00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:53.159
Start out at the big name. You know, in your

35
00:01:53.239 --> 00:01:56.200
childhood or youth, is there a person or a moment

36
00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:57.560
that left a post and mark on you?

37
00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:04.920
Oh, in my childhood. I think in my childhood, I

38
00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:09.800
would say that I learned early on how to have

39
00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:15.159
people recognize you, be visible to those folks, and people

40
00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:18.439
give you stuff. So when I got good grades, I

41
00:02:18.520 --> 00:02:22.919
kept noticing that people would want to give me money

42
00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:23.840
for those grades.

43
00:02:23.960 --> 00:02:24.680
Right.

44
00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:27.960
If you ever seen a movie Achille and the Bee,

45
00:02:28.520 --> 00:02:33.400
I was sort of that neighborhood kid because I was

46
00:02:33.479 --> 00:02:38.439
able to get the adults to marvel at me because

47
00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:41.199
I learned how to read early, you know, being taught

48
00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:44.400
by my grandfather with readers digest, and I turned that

49
00:02:44.599 --> 00:02:49.120
into I guess, my first entrepreneurial pursuit where I would

50
00:02:49.159 --> 00:02:53.240
read to the neighborhood kids and I would get cookies

51
00:02:53.240 --> 00:02:56.280
and milk, you know, growing up in North Philadelphia, so

52
00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:01.159
you know, I would say, yeah, those childhood memories help

53
00:03:01.240 --> 00:03:05.840
me understand the dynamics of relationships people and how to

54
00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:10.159
move people to basically, you know, give you things and

55
00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:16.240
see you as somebody that's valuable. And I'll end this

56
00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:20.960
part with this. When I would run around with my

57
00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:25.479
friends and let's say I broke a window, I don't

58
00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:28.120
know what it was, and I think it was those

59
00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:31.039
other things that I mentioned, but people would just say, hey,

60
00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:34.560
Curtis was just around the wrong crowd or hanging with

61
00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:38.919
those bad kids, whereas other kids would would get in trouble.

62
00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:41.360
So I think I was I was lucky. Now it

63
00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:43.240
could be good and bad, right, you end up getting

64
00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:46.960
away with things that you shouldn't, but yeah, early on,

65
00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:50.759
just the power of if you do the right things,

66
00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:52.240
good things come to you.

67
00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:58.560
M Yeah, definitely, so as you when you were a

68
00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:01.400
child or you did you have aspirations to go after

69
00:04:01.479 --> 00:04:02.479
a certain career.

70
00:04:04.199 --> 00:04:07.560
Absolutely, I wanted to be an Air Force pilot. So

71
00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:10.800
my uncle was in the Air Force, and out of

72
00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.800
all my uncles, I had a mailman uncle. I had

73
00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:20.399
another uncle who basically didn't work much until later in life.

74
00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:24.399
And then I had my Air Force uncle. And my

75
00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:29.160
uncle Junior had a place in I believe it was

76
00:04:29.240 --> 00:04:34.839
in the Rental Air Force Base in Illinois, and I

77
00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:38.480
got to go there and I saw how he lived,

78
00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:41.920
and I'm gonna tell you it was the biggest aha

79
00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:44.120
moment for me was he had a house with grass.

80
00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:45.600
I couldn't wait to go there.

81
00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:46.160
You know.

82
00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:50.319
I lived in North Philadelphia. Concrete jungle grass was the park.

83
00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:54.519
Even my school didn't have grass, so I didn't grow

84
00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:57.800
up around those free running areas. And now I go

85
00:04:57.879 --> 00:05:00.519
to this place on this Air Force base, and I'm

86
00:05:00.600 --> 00:05:05.480
just loving it so for me, and also seeing how

87
00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:09.240
my uncle behaved, he just had this discipline and aura

88
00:05:09.319 --> 00:05:11.959
about him that I wanted. I wanted all of that,

89
00:05:12.439 --> 00:05:15.879
so I wanted to be an Air Force pilot. And

90
00:05:15.959 --> 00:05:19.079
then Star Wars came out and then I wanted to

91
00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:21.480
be an Air Force pilot, and I wanted to shoot

92
00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:24.759
other planes out the sky. The crazy thing was, at

93
00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:28.480
that time, I wasn't realizing that I was shooting another human, right,

94
00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:30.879
I was just it was almost like a video game.

95
00:05:31.399 --> 00:05:35.319
But I never fulfilled that dream of going to the

96
00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:39.000
Air Force first and being like my uncle and being

97
00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:43.120
a pilot. I just, quite frankly, I didn't have the

98
00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:46.800
grades or the acumen to pursue that part of the dream.

99
00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:48.079
So I had to make some changes.

100
00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:52.079
Tell you had a dream, and that's what counts, because

101
00:05:52.079 --> 00:05:56.319
so many times people say I didn't go after that

102
00:05:56.519 --> 00:06:02.079
or something like that. But every dream its own experience

103
00:06:02.279 --> 00:06:06.720
and learnings from it that'd be carry forward. So I'm

104
00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:08.519
assuming that you took a detour and.

105
00:06:08.519 --> 00:06:09.279
What did you land.

106
00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:12.439
Yeah, the detour for me.

107
00:06:15.240 --> 00:06:19.879
Came right around high school and in my first year

108
00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:25.000
in college, I was working at the Philadelphia Electric Company

109
00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:28.120
and it was a gentleman there by the name of

110
00:06:28.199 --> 00:06:31.759
George Zamos, and PCs were starting to come out, right,

111
00:06:31.879 --> 00:06:36.800
So I was working in computers with these big monstrosities

112
00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:41.519
of massive discs for data and things like that, and

113
00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:46.040
personal computers came out, and he sort of mentored me

114
00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:49.920
in that space, and that started me in my career

115
00:06:50.120 --> 00:06:53.319
Around it, I became very, very fascinated. I was working

116
00:06:53.319 --> 00:06:57.240
with other engineers, was literally in school for mechanical engineering,

117
00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:03.439
and he he was a mechanical engineer, but he drove

118
00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:10.399
me towards the computer and then for several years in

119
00:07:10.439 --> 00:07:16.000
the computers. But then the next pivot came when another leader,

120
00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:20.160
gentleman by the name of Mike Black, asked me directly

121
00:07:20.360 --> 00:07:23.240
about my career because I was starting to take two

122
00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:27.519
separate paths, and he says, hey, are you looking to

123
00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:29.800
do a technical track or do you want to be

124
00:07:29.839 --> 00:07:30.920
around more people.

125
00:07:31.160 --> 00:07:32.160
Tell me what you're thinking.

126
00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:35.680
And as we talked through it, he said, the way

127
00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:39.360
that I see you, you would make a tremendous project manager.

128
00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:45.600
And that's how it all began. From a project management perspective.

129
00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:48.199
I pursued that and I've kept that and everything that

130
00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:49.959
I do is rooted in project management.

131
00:07:52.399 --> 00:07:57.839
And you talk about handling oneself as a project manager

132
00:07:57.879 --> 00:07:58.279
as well.

133
00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:02.199
Yeah, so you became project manager.

134
00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:06.439
Learned a lot because in a project management is having

135
00:08:06.519 --> 00:08:11.279
responsibility without authority. Yes you're responsible for it, and yet

136
00:08:11.399 --> 00:08:14.560
you gotta Sometimes it's like hurting the cats.

137
00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:15.800
Yes, it is.

138
00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:18.519
How people deliver things on time. And at the end

139
00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:20.680
of the day, you are the one who's held responsible.

140
00:08:21.519 --> 00:08:24.160
So what would you say were some of your lessons

141
00:08:24.199 --> 00:08:25.800
that you took from that experience.

142
00:08:27.800 --> 00:08:30.800
So you kind of laid it out there just now

143
00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:33.440
and at the end you say, you talk about all

144
00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:37.200
the responsibility that you have, and it is something about

145
00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:40.000
a project manager. You're I always say you're either a

146
00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:46.200
hero or a zero, and I just like those odds.

147
00:08:46.919 --> 00:08:52.080
Why it connected with me was it's the temporary nature.

148
00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:56.759
It's the opportunity to build something like everything that's around

149
00:08:56.840 --> 00:09:01.559
us somebody thought and dreamed of before it was ever executed.

150
00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:06.720
And that's how I like. I'm a dreamer and I

151
00:09:06.840 --> 00:09:10.840
like to dream what outcomes look like. And that's why

152
00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:13.360
I trademark the art and science of vision to reality.

153
00:09:14.360 --> 00:09:18.639
And so I learned. One of the lessons learned that

154
00:09:18.679 --> 00:09:23.120
I learned is the relationships are so important. They're important

155
00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:27.559
for negotiation. Like you said about leading without authority, you

156
00:09:28.200 --> 00:09:32.399
have to drive humans to do things that align with

157
00:09:32.600 --> 00:09:35.559
what you're trying to achieve. And if you can't inspire

158
00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:37.799
those humans to do so, you're going to be that zero.

159
00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:41.200
So I had to learn a lot about myself first.

160
00:09:41.399 --> 00:09:44.120
I had to learn a lot about people. I had

161
00:09:44.120 --> 00:09:48.399
to learn the science of negotiations. I had to learn

162
00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:52.200
how to communicate so that people understood what I was

163
00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:56.519
talking about. And all those things coming together, I would say,

164
00:09:56.600 --> 00:10:00.759
is part of the art and science. I had to

165
00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:04.200
learn the technical parts of project management, and it just

166
00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:10.639
it's something beautiful about an end product that you had

167
00:10:10.639 --> 00:10:13.000
a hand in, right, even if it wasn't your dream,

168
00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:16.559
you had a hand in making it real. And it

169
00:10:16.759 --> 00:10:19.399
just every time I do it. I don't know if

170
00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:21.840
you think about some kind of character that sort of

171
00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:25.120
gets stronger and stronger because every project that they did,

172
00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:27.559
it just built them up. That's how I feel. I

173
00:10:27.639 --> 00:10:31.039
just feel like I'm just this unstoppable force that keeps

174
00:10:31.159 --> 00:10:33.720
growing every time I'm able to bring value to an

175
00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:39.159
organization or to myself or others just from executing a

176
00:10:39.240 --> 00:10:43.159
project in a manner that either met or exceeded their expectations.

177
00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:48.600
Yeah, the key thing that I'm hearing, Curtis is that

178
00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:53.039
you're bringing value to others, You're bringing things to a

179
00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:58.320
finish line, you're helping the organization move forward. So definitely

180
00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:04.480
having that work ethics and dedication towards work goes long

181
00:11:04.519 --> 00:11:08.559
ways because you're not coming from a place of people

182
00:11:08.840 --> 00:11:11.600
politics or like oh you do this for me or

183
00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:17.159
I'll do this. You're going from away from it, whereas

184
00:11:17.240 --> 00:11:19.759
you're focused on like, okay, how can we move this project?

185
00:11:19.799 --> 00:11:23.679
How can we all come together and go there? So

186
00:11:23.960 --> 00:11:27.240
tell me about the hard time during the layoff.

187
00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:35.720
Oh Man, So I had just finished this major program

188
00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:38.840
with the University of Penn. I was so happy that

189
00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:42.600
I achieved my master's and executive management, and I thought

190
00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:45.279
this was going to be the key, right. I followed

191
00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:51.000
the Temple University professor's advice to get a designer label,

192
00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:54.039
which was University of Penn and the Wharton School of Business.

193
00:11:54.440 --> 00:11:57.480
And so I'm working at my company at the time,

194
00:11:57.559 --> 00:12:01.240
Bank One, and I'm thinking, okay, follows next as promotion,

195
00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:06.200
and that didn't happen. In fact, I had a couple

196
00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:09.600
of run ins with the leaders, and so I made

197
00:12:09.639 --> 00:12:12.559
a decision, and that decision was to leave the organization

198
00:12:12.919 --> 00:12:15.679
and start finding my way because I knew that I

199
00:12:15.799 --> 00:12:18.279
was bigger than where I was just given the education

200
00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:20.879
and relationships and the things that I've learned, I was

201
00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:24.480
ready for something new. And then I joined this organization

202
00:12:24.600 --> 00:12:28.440
called Student Finance Corporation, and I'm happy because they're hiring

203
00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:32.639
me to run their PMO. I'm no longer the project

204
00:12:32.679 --> 00:12:36.320
manager in the PMO. I am the person responsible for

205
00:12:36.360 --> 00:12:39.000
creating a PMO from scratch. And that was always my

206
00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:42.679
dream job, and as we speak now, I've done it

207
00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:47.559
three times over a number of years. But I couldn't wait,

208
00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:52.360
and I got started and I got the job, and

209
00:12:52.399 --> 00:12:55.519
then about four weeks into it, all of a sudden,

210
00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:58.840
they're laying people off and I'm like, oh, my goodness, right,

211
00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:01.879
I just got here and my safe And at the

212
00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:05.000
time I was, I was safe in the beginning. Two

213
00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:11.720
weeks later, I'm on the list. That was the single

214
00:13:11.799 --> 00:13:16.039
most rough it was. It was rough. It was really rough.

215
00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:19.399
And so what happened?

216
00:13:19.559 --> 00:13:19.759
You know?

217
00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:21.799
When I got the news, I went out with some

218
00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:26.960
friends that were laid off to We're drinking, and all

219
00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:28.679
I'm thinking is how I'm going to break the news

220
00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:29.759
to the family, right, what?

221
00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:31.000
What? What's going to happen?

222
00:13:32.039 --> 00:13:34.799
So I finally got the courage to share that information

223
00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:41.279
with the family and from there after, my son's reaction,

224
00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:42.320
are we going to be poor?

225
00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:42.720
Right.

226
00:13:42.840 --> 00:13:45.240
I laughed at that because he didn't really know what

227
00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:47.840
that meant, but he could tell that I was really

228
00:13:47.879 --> 00:13:51.840
devastated by it and I had to turn it around.

229
00:13:51.879 --> 00:13:55.320
And that single incident turned out to be the best

230
00:13:55.320 --> 00:13:57.320
thing that ever happened to me in my career.

231
00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:05.279
And that's beautiful that you are taking that incident as

232
00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:05.919
a blessing.

233
00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:08.240
Yeah, so, so many.

234
00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:10.639
Times what happens is, you know, when people get laid off,

235
00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:13.960
and so many layoffs have been happening throughout this year,

236
00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:19.240
and we may see the numbers differently, but people who

237
00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:23.320
get laid off, right, that's a major life altering event

238
00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:28.039
for them. So not everybody's a project manager. How can

239
00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:30.840
during that time or even during another time like in

240
00:14:30.919 --> 00:14:35.000
a non project managers bring that project management thinking to

241
00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:37.080
the careers and os.

242
00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:40.440
So the way that I brought my project management thinking

243
00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:44.720
to it. I mean it goes back to that visionary reality,

244
00:14:45.080 --> 00:14:50.200
art and science. It is seeing what you want to achieve.

245
00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:52.919
I think we all have imaginations. It doesn't matter who

246
00:14:52.919 --> 00:14:55.159
we are right, where do we want to be, where

247
00:14:55.159 --> 00:14:57.600
do we want to work? And for me, I wanted

248
00:14:57.600 --> 00:14:59.720
to design what my life was going to look like.

249
00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:06.039
Love Love, Love, travel, and just being able to afford it. Yes,

250
00:15:06.279 --> 00:15:08.279
you know, you get a nice salary, you can do it.

251
00:15:08.279 --> 00:15:10.799
But I wanted to see the world. Why not join

252
00:15:10.840 --> 00:15:15.279
a company that was international? And then what else did

253
00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:18.120
I learn about? Love about my job? I wanted to

254
00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:22.240
be someone who could bring value as a project manager

255
00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:28.240
to execute on the company strategy. I wanted perks, like

256
00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:31.919
a cell phone that's paid for because you know you're

257
00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:36.000
going to call me a lot. I wanted to I

258
00:15:36.120 --> 00:15:39.879
just there were other things that I wanted. Oh, I

259
00:15:39.960 --> 00:15:42.840
really wanted an organization that was going to align with

260
00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:46.480
my values. At the time, I was volunteering with an

261
00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:50.559
organization called Black Data Process and Associates, which was designed

262
00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:55.399
to help people without access to technology become part of

263
00:15:55.559 --> 00:16:00.399
technology and to compete. And so what kind of companies

264
00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:03.159
could help me? And so what I did was I

265
00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:07.440
looked at all the companies in the tri state area

266
00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:13.320
for Philadelphia, in Delaware, in New Jersey, and I started

267
00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:15.480
looking at Okay, so this is what the end looks

268
00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:18.519
like a project management position in one of these companies.

269
00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:23.519
And then I believe LinkedIn might have been around. I

270
00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:26.279
don't remember using LinkedIn, but what I do remember is

271
00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:30.879
going to the Census online, getting those companies and then

272
00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:35.360
looking at where does either BDPA have sponsorship or where

273
00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:37.799
do I know a person? And I just wrote down

274
00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:42.679
a connection to those companies, right, and so that you

275
00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:47.200
talk about that's the division the concept. Then there's the plan.

276
00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:50.240
So I took the plan and said, Okay, how do

277
00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:52.679
I reach out to each one of these folks and

278
00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:56.559
build some confidence with them that I'm the next person

279
00:16:56.600 --> 00:17:00.320
to hire. And I built a routine. I built a

280
00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:04.440
a day to day routine that says, every day I'm

281
00:17:04.440 --> 00:17:07.680
going to put ten names that I want to contact,

282
00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:11.440
and that morning I contacted those ten names and I

283
00:17:11.559 --> 00:17:17.039
did it till I got noticed and a person that

284
00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:19.920
used to work for me recommended me. I did an interview.

285
00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:22.920
Two days later, I got the offer. Then I had

286
00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:27.599
the job. So I just put a series of things

287
00:17:27.640 --> 00:17:31.680
together with some milestones and measured. I went to career fairs.

288
00:17:32.920 --> 00:17:34.960
I would even show up now this is right after

289
00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:37.279
nine to eleven, and this is talking about being confident

290
00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:41.880
and bold. I would show up with a marketing document

291
00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:44.400
on why you should hire me. And I ended up

292
00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:47.359
creating a seventeen page document that I've used throughout the

293
00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:52.039
years that I was trying to push past security guards

294
00:17:52.039 --> 00:17:54.079
and saying, hey, I just want to go into the

295
00:17:54.200 --> 00:17:57.200
HR department and introduce myself and say, hey, here it is.

296
00:17:57.720 --> 00:18:01.920
And I remember going into this office with the Judge

297
00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:06.319
group down in King Oppression and Philadelphia, and guy says,

298
00:18:06.359 --> 00:18:09.640
nobody does this, and I'm like, I'm hungry, like I

299
00:18:09.960 --> 00:18:10.519
need to eat.

300
00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:11.720
I need a job.

301
00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:16.039
So I would do those things right. I would be

302
00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:18.359
doing your organized things like a project manager. But I

303
00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:24.200
also took both actions because I wanted to secure employment.

304
00:18:27.960 --> 00:18:30.240
M So you were running that as a project and

305
00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:33.640
that is so powerful because at the end of the day,

306
00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:37.000
you came out doing things which nobody else was doing.

307
00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:41.559
That's right and from that point onwards, where did your

308
00:18:41.559 --> 00:18:42.119
career lead you?

309
00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:47.440
So from that point on, I also said I need

310
00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:51.880
to continue building off of vision to reality, the art

311
00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:54.680
and science and vision to reality. And then I built

312
00:18:55.720 --> 00:19:00.240
realization framework Experience, which is another way that I use

313
00:19:00.279 --> 00:19:05.200
project management to help companies and small businesses. So I've

314
00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:08.680
built from that time not only the PMO. Well, I

315
00:19:08.680 --> 00:19:11.279
got laid off from that one, but then I found

316
00:19:11.319 --> 00:19:15.559
another job with Roman Has and participated in building the

317
00:19:15.640 --> 00:19:18.960
PMO and then for Keystone Foods built the PMO, and

318
00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:23.119
then where I'm at today built the PMO, And it's

319
00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:28.839
using that framework of understanding what the vision of the

320
00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:33.599
organization is going to look like inside of a company

321
00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:38.000
and aligning with the strategies, looking at hiring the right people,

322
00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:41.519
building a model that allows you to flex up and

323
00:19:41.559 --> 00:19:43.759
down with demand so that you don't have late to

324
00:19:43.839 --> 00:19:48.079
lay people off. Coming up with and understanding the language

325
00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:51.759
of financials, not just budgets, but also what are the

326
00:19:51.799 --> 00:19:56.799
company's financials that they've measured, like EBIT earnings before income tax,

327
00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:02.400
depreciation and amortization, or free cap flow or force multipliers

328
00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:05.880
that they use with their capital investments, things like that,

329
00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:09.799
so I can talk to CFOs and then taking all

330
00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:12.880
of that together, putting it into a clear plan that

331
00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:16.799
I can work daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually, and

332
00:20:16.839 --> 00:20:21.079
then building in the sense of system of accountability right

333
00:20:21.480 --> 00:20:24.920
how to measure those things, and then continuously learn putting

334
00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:28.039
in the right metrics and then driving driving, driving to

335
00:20:28.640 --> 00:20:30.160
to good great outcomes.

336
00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:37.400
So this is you're talking about that, Okay, for the outcomes,

337
00:20:37.400 --> 00:20:39.519
you need positioning. So what are the four pieces that

338
00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:40.200
you talk about?

339
00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:43.839
You know, what as as I finished that, I said,

340
00:20:43.880 --> 00:20:46.640
you know what I should have talked about the four

341
00:20:46.680 --> 00:20:49.519
piece of marketing, where I say I don't look for jobs,

342
00:20:49.599 --> 00:20:52.240
jobs look for me. That was actually the first thing

343
00:20:52.279 --> 00:20:55.039
I did before the realization framework experience. So when I

344
00:20:55.079 --> 00:20:58.519
was laid off, there was a course that I took

345
00:20:59.079 --> 00:21:01.839
with the ladder. I think that it used to be

346
00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:04.839
called six figure Jobs dot com. And the gentleman that

347
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:08.480
was teaching said, you've got to get into the mindset

348
00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:12.799
that looking for a job is sales. And people, you

349
00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:15.359
know a lot of times have a negative view of

350
00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:19.119
what sales is. But we're all in sales. I mean,

351
00:21:19.160 --> 00:21:21.240
I'm in sales right now. Somebody's going to see this,

352
00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:26.160
and I'm hoping that they see that I'm somebody that's valuable, right,

353
00:21:27.640 --> 00:21:31.119
And so he mentioned marketing and I said, let me,

354
00:21:31.240 --> 00:21:32.640
let me do a little bit of study into this

355
00:21:32.839 --> 00:21:35.680
on this, and I studied the four piece of marketing

356
00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:38.759
and that's a that's another thing that I drive on

357
00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:44.200
it is I'm sorry product, seeing yourself as a product

358
00:21:44.279 --> 00:21:48.119
and understanding the challenges that you solve and how you

359
00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:51.559
can articulate that right, the value that you bring price,

360
00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:54.799
how do you get paid for what you do, and

361
00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:57.240
how do you negotiate that salary? What is a good

362
00:21:57.319 --> 00:22:00.799
price in this market for this position and for the

363
00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:05.960
extringent and extrinsic and intrinsic value that you provide?

364
00:22:06.759 --> 00:22:07.240
Position?

365
00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:11.440
How do I position myself so that I'm in the

366
00:22:11.559 --> 00:22:14.680
right places with the right people, solving the right problems.

367
00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:17.000
And I like to call it like a supermarket. How

368
00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:20.160
to be eye level by level right where your most

369
00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:23.759
expensive items are right there at eye level and let's

370
00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:27.880
say the things that are below our least expensive items.

371
00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:30.440
But you know, with children, for example, that's where they

372
00:22:30.440 --> 00:22:32.759
put the candy right, so that's eye level for them

373
00:22:32.759 --> 00:22:35.319
so they can say, mom or Dad, is what I want?

374
00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:40.480
And then promotion, how do I leverage mentors, more importantly

375
00:22:40.559 --> 00:22:45.160
sponsors to help promote me while I'm also promoting me?

376
00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:46.240
But who you know.

377
00:22:46.200 --> 00:22:49.000
Somebody that knows you when you're not in the room

378
00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:51.559
and think of you as that problem solver. And I

379
00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:54.000
studied that and I kept that with me. In fact,

380
00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:56.559
I wrote my first book on it right that talks

381
00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:00.440
about my layoff and the four p's of marketing or product, price,

382
00:23:01.400 --> 00:23:05.160
position and promotion. It's called the only job search book

383
00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:09.039
you'll ever need a bold title, right, the.

384
00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:10.920
Title is absolutely very clear.

385
00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:17.400
So now you've talked about the four piece yeah, and

386
00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:21.799
you've mentioned about the realization framework. So can you share

387
00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:25.279
with us as to what are the five steps and

388
00:23:25.319 --> 00:23:26.960
a quick example for each of them?

389
00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:33.880
The five steps visualize. So this is where I love

390
00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:37.240
to say, I want you to imagine, right, So you

391
00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:40.960
have to be able to come up with a vision

392
00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:47.160
that you can articulate. So for me, my vision was

393
00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:49.640
that I was going to be a director of a

394
00:23:49.720 --> 00:23:54.279
project management office in the company in the Northeast with

395
00:23:56.039 --> 00:24:01.200
X number of benefits and responsibilities. And that's what I wanted.

396
00:24:01.240 --> 00:24:03.319
That was the vision that I had. This and this

397
00:24:03.400 --> 00:24:10.240
is a job seeking example. Then evaluate, Evaluate is who

398
00:24:10.640 --> 00:24:13.880
in your circle can help you get to where you

399
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:16.920
want to be. I learned that I did not have

400
00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:19.960
a strong network at the time, right when I lost

401
00:24:19.960 --> 00:24:22.880
my job. Well, I corrected that so that I built

402
00:24:22.920 --> 00:24:25.880
the type of relationships that helped me get to where

403
00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:28.759
I want to be. So I had to add people

404
00:24:29.079 --> 00:24:31.720
who were thrusters towards that vision, and I had to

405
00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:36.160
subtract people who were I would say, drags on that vision.

406
00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:39.119
And so how do I surround myself with the right people.

407
00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:42.720
And you do this also if you're running a business, right,

408
00:24:42.839 --> 00:24:45.359
it's the same thing with employees. You hire your cousin,

409
00:24:45.799 --> 00:24:48.440
your cousin doesn't do the work, you still pay them, right,

410
00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:52.319
And I've seen I've coached many many businesses that have

411
00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:57.519
done that. Then it's calculate, so what is it going

412
00:24:57.599 --> 00:24:58.839
to cost to get me there?

413
00:24:58.920 --> 00:24:59.119
Right?

414
00:24:59.200 --> 00:25:03.480
In this case, I'm either leveraging the four p's in

415
00:25:03.559 --> 00:25:06.599
terms of price, or I'm talking about what is the

416
00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:10.519
budget that I'm going to spend that allows me to

417
00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:16.880
reach that dream? And then there's clarify. Clarify is bringing

418
00:25:16.920 --> 00:25:20.000
it all together. Clarify is the root of who and

419
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:22.759
what I am. And that's the plan that brings the

420
00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:28.960
people and the budget along with the set of clear

421
00:25:29.240 --> 00:25:31.359
actions that you're going to take. And there's some things

422
00:25:31.359 --> 00:25:33.519
that you can do, like if you're a business, you're

423
00:25:33.559 --> 00:25:37.519
going to do some people to use swat analysis. I

424
00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:42.319
like steep analysis looking at the impacts of the societal, technological,

425
00:25:42.359 --> 00:25:47.559
and economic, environmental or political impacts that could have on

426
00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:50.720
your business or your job search.

427
00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:51.119
Right.

428
00:25:51.240 --> 00:25:53.880
I mean we see that now with the impacts to

429
00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:57.759
the government. When I found another job later, I looked

430
00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:00.400
at and I wrote this on the whiteboard, find out

431
00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:02.920
where the stimulus money is going. Right, So it was

432
00:26:02.920 --> 00:26:05.160
a lot of political things happening there, and I got

433
00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:10.680
the job at Amtrak. So then there's calculate, their clarify,

434
00:26:10.839 --> 00:26:15.480
and then there's realize and realize is sort of going

435
00:26:15.559 --> 00:26:18.359
back in through that circle. Right, So you kind of

436
00:26:18.640 --> 00:26:22.279
building a system of accountability. Now I have a personal

437
00:26:22.359 --> 00:26:25.839
board of directors. My friends, we even created an organization

438
00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:29.160
called LEAP, the League of Executive African American Professionals, that

439
00:26:29.240 --> 00:26:33.279
we developed just from playing golf together. But our conversations

440
00:26:33.319 --> 00:26:35.920
were uplifting. We talked about our careers, we talked about

441
00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:38.640
our families, we talked about our aspirations. So we said, well,

442
00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:40.839
why don't we just go ahead and make this an LLC,

443
00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:44.160
make this golf trip more fun, but also set some

444
00:26:44.200 --> 00:26:46.240
goals where we can talk. So that that was my

445
00:26:46.319 --> 00:26:49.039
personal board of directors that I still carry today.

446
00:26:49.400 --> 00:26:50.920
Just like I.

447
00:26:50.559 --> 00:26:54.559
Advise small businesses, put yourself in a position where you

448
00:26:54.640 --> 00:26:57.960
have people that's been there, done that, that have specific

449
00:26:58.079 --> 00:27:03.119
sets of skill sets that can help elevate you so

450
00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:06.880
that when you put this vision together that you can

451
00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:10.359
articulate you get the people, or you get some help

452
00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:15.319
to get those people. You have a budget and plans

453
00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:18.359
for your money, and you've got a plan and the

454
00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:21.880
metrics that you want to use, have somebody else help

455
00:27:21.920 --> 00:27:25.400
keep you accountable and so it's that level of accountability

456
00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:28.200
that helps keep you going as well. So that's how

457
00:27:28.240 --> 00:27:31.720
I would describe their five steps of the Realization Framework experience.

458
00:27:33.960 --> 00:27:40.720
That's definitely powerful. You've talked about accountability, and especially as

459
00:27:40.759 --> 00:27:44.880
we are getting close to the well maybe just two

460
00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:48.160
days today end tomorrow before we get into the New.

461
00:27:48.119 --> 00:27:52.119
Year's and it so.

462
00:27:55.079 --> 00:27:58.039
Well known that you know, almost ninety two percent of

463
00:27:58.119 --> 00:28:01.200
people fail with the newers rest, So so how can

464
00:28:01.240 --> 00:28:08.440
people hold themselves accountable, especially our audience. And then you

465
00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:12.640
talk about like some metrics or having that accountability board

466
00:28:12.839 --> 00:28:15.559
so that they can be on track with their goals.

467
00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:17.519
Wow.

468
00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:21.119
So one of the things I stopped doing was making

469
00:28:21.319 --> 00:28:26.640
New Year's resolutions because of that. But what I started

470
00:28:26.680 --> 00:28:30.960
doing some time ago is building in systems. So I

471
00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:34.559
don't say anymore that I want to lose twenty pounds,

472
00:28:34.559 --> 00:28:38.240
for example, I just build in a system. I hired

473
00:28:38.279 --> 00:28:41.599
a personal trainer to come to the house, right and

474
00:28:42.680 --> 00:28:45.519
you know, just you know, I work out based off

475
00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:47.200
of some of the goals that I want to make,

476
00:28:47.240 --> 00:28:48.559
Like I don't want to be a strong man, so

477
00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:53.240
I'm not doing heavy weights. With that process as well,

478
00:28:53.319 --> 00:28:57.640
I also have a yoga instructor, and the yoga instructor

479
00:28:57.640 --> 00:29:01.519
helps me mentally and also you know, not just physically,

480
00:29:01.559 --> 00:29:05.359
but also in the conversations around diet. So I put

481
00:29:05.400 --> 00:29:07.640
that system in place that I've been doing for a

482
00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:11.519
couple of years, and now I don't measure whether I

483
00:29:11.559 --> 00:29:14.200
am going to lose a certain amount of weight. I

484
00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:18.240
can feel when I'm being bad, like during the holidays

485
00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:24.200
right now, or when I'm on track, and I do

486
00:29:24.279 --> 00:29:30.079
that with everything. I just set up systems and say, okay,

487
00:29:30.200 --> 00:29:33.920
what's my overall goal for me? Curtis Jenkins. The overall

488
00:29:33.960 --> 00:29:37.880
goal for me is what I call freedom, and freedom

489
00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:43.359
is to do cool things and see cool places with

490
00:29:43.480 --> 00:29:50.920
people I love without encumbrances, and those encumbrances are typically money, time,

491
00:29:51.200 --> 00:29:54.960
and health. And then finally, to leave a legacy. So

492
00:29:55.119 --> 00:29:57.519
why do I write books, Why do I write articles?

493
00:29:57.880 --> 00:30:00.279
Why did I set up my dynasty trust the way

494
00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:04.359
that I did? Why do I do much of what

495
00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:06.720
I do? It's to leave a legacy. It's to leave

496
00:30:06.720 --> 00:30:10.319
the world in a better place than I found it.

497
00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:13.720
But inside of it, it's to do cool things. I mean,

498
00:30:13.880 --> 00:30:16.480
what I do for a living is so cool, right.

499
00:30:17.279 --> 00:30:23.559
I get to create reality through through visions and see

500
00:30:23.559 --> 00:30:26.039
cool places. That's why I said, I love to travel,

501
00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:29.480
and I'm traveling all the time, at least three or

502
00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:32.039
four times a year to major destinations. I have a

503
00:30:32.119 --> 00:30:36.839
whole list bucket list of travel and so I look

504
00:30:36.839 --> 00:30:40.480
at that. That's my overwatching vision, right. And then so

505
00:30:40.559 --> 00:30:46.319
now I don't have any goals inside of that except Okay,

506
00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:47.920
I said I'm going to write a book.

507
00:30:48.279 --> 00:30:49.160
I write the book.

508
00:30:49.880 --> 00:30:52.039
I got a new book coming out which is called

509
00:30:52.160 --> 00:30:55.039
Vision to Reality, A bull road Map to thrive in

510
00:30:55.119 --> 00:30:59.759
the Age of AI remote working career reinvention. And so

511
00:31:01.119 --> 00:31:05.839
I would say, if you have an overarching north star

512
00:31:06.759 --> 00:31:09.920
of how you want to live your life, then do

513
00:31:10.039 --> 00:31:15.279
that and then put in systems to help you reach

514
00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:19.799
those those goals, and you'll find yourself just constantly growing.

515
00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:24.960
Yeah, that's powerful. Code is And.

516
00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:30.039
As we kind of go into the New Year's so

517
00:31:30.119 --> 00:31:33.640
many times people may have the vision, like you know,

518
00:31:33.680 --> 00:31:37.039
as you're describing, have the over arching goal and the

519
00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:37.960
one visibility.

520
00:31:37.960 --> 00:31:39.119
The want recognition in.

521
00:31:39.119 --> 00:31:44.880
Their jobs and find that meaning, especially our gen zs

522
00:31:44.920 --> 00:31:46.440
and millennials.

523
00:31:46.480 --> 00:31:47.559
How can they go about it?

524
00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:57.279
So visibility it's it's uh, how do I How do

525
00:31:57.359 --> 00:32:00.960
I describe this? So I know how I do visibility

526
00:32:01.119 --> 00:32:04.960
and then I know how people that I lead struggle

527
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:11.359
with visibility. One of the things that happened to me

528
00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:17.599
when this company that I was working for was purchased

529
00:32:17.599 --> 00:32:21.759
by another. Here I am with the potential of being

530
00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:25.240
laid off again, and I'm not I'm being asked to stay.

531
00:32:27.240 --> 00:32:32.880
And one of my colleagues approached me boldly and said,

532
00:32:33.400 --> 00:32:34.920
why did they ask you to stay?

533
00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:36.400
And why are they asking me to leave?

534
00:32:38.079 --> 00:32:43.119
I know many as many people as you, and I

535
00:32:43.240 --> 00:32:47.799
have done as many projects as you. And I was like, wow,

536
00:32:47.960 --> 00:32:50.640
you know, I could really be offended by that question,

537
00:32:50.839 --> 00:32:53.279
but I'm not. Let me think a little bit deeper.

538
00:32:53.319 --> 00:32:56.640
I've learned to be a great listener as a project manager.

539
00:32:57.599 --> 00:33:02.319
And what I was here was, you know, what's the

540
00:33:02.319 --> 00:33:03.799
difference between you and I.

541
00:33:05.480 --> 00:33:07.400
And why you and not me?

542
00:33:08.039 --> 00:33:11.319
And so what I did, graciously was I said, let

543
00:33:11.359 --> 00:33:15.720
me let me help you, but let's explore your question

544
00:33:17.039 --> 00:33:23.119
when we celebrate every year our accomplishments with the CIO

545
00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:26.599
on major projects. How many of your projects is.

546
00:33:26.519 --> 00:33:28.359
On the board?

547
00:33:29.200 --> 00:33:33.000
None? How many of my projects are on the board?

548
00:33:33.519 --> 00:33:37.720
And I said, I'll help you all of them. We're

549
00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:39.839
at the end of the year celebrating all of my

550
00:33:39.920 --> 00:33:41.000
projects are on the board.

551
00:33:42.359 --> 00:33:42.640
I said.

552
00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:46.160
One of the things that I did when I came here,

553
00:33:46.359 --> 00:33:49.039
after going through those other experiences I shared with you,

554
00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:54.720
is I won't work on a project unless it has visibility,

555
00:33:55.319 --> 00:33:59.160
unless it has the potential to have a big impact.

556
00:34:00.160 --> 00:34:03.240
And she was shocked. She said, you can turn down

557
00:34:03.279 --> 00:34:05.200
projects and I said, you absolutely can.

558
00:34:06.920 --> 00:34:08.239
It may.

559
00:34:09.559 --> 00:34:11.800
It may, you know, depends on who you are and

560
00:34:11.840 --> 00:34:17.519
what you what you've accomplished. But when I joined the organization,

561
00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:19.880
the first question that was asked of me by my

562
00:34:19.960 --> 00:34:21.880
boss at the time was what do you want to

563
00:34:21.920 --> 00:34:27.360
work on? And I said, what is everybody else afraid of?

564
00:34:29.639 --> 00:34:31.800
And she says, let me get back to you. And

565
00:34:31.840 --> 00:34:34.719
that's when I That's when I got into mergers and acquisitions.

566
00:34:34.719 --> 00:34:37.760
And at the time, I mean, they're they're pretty easy

567
00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:40.400
to do right now. But at the time M and

568
00:34:40.440 --> 00:34:45.760
a's were failing across the board right because of the

569
00:34:45.840 --> 00:34:50.880
poor execution and integration or poor due diligence and things

570
00:34:50.920 --> 00:34:54.079
like that. They've they've come a long way now and

571
00:34:54.719 --> 00:34:59.039
they're pretty easy to implement. But that's what I asked.

572
00:34:59.079 --> 00:35:01.480
I said, give me what everybody else is afraid of.

573
00:35:02.239 --> 00:35:06.440
And so I knew at that point, and it was scary,

574
00:35:07.079 --> 00:35:10.840
Like I do some scary things, I'm going to quickly deviate.

575
00:35:11.079 --> 00:35:14.119
Just to tell you, man, it's been hard to sleep

576
00:35:14.159 --> 00:35:17.159
because I just joined the board of an organization that

577
00:35:17.199 --> 00:35:20.880
I've been supporting for years, and I pledged to them

578
00:35:20.880 --> 00:35:23.960
that I would raise five million dollars in two years

579
00:35:24.599 --> 00:35:27.360
and create three million dollars as an endowment. I've never

580
00:35:27.440 --> 00:35:30.760
done that before. I've volunteered, i've led these types of organizations,

581
00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:34.039
but I've never done that before. So one of the

582
00:35:34.079 --> 00:35:37.440
things that if I'm going to talk about advice like

583
00:35:37.679 --> 00:35:41.199
take on what's scary, because the growth that comes from it,

584
00:35:41.360 --> 00:35:44.280
remember that hero or zero, don't run away from it.

585
00:35:45.119 --> 00:35:48.159
A lot of times when I'm talking to people that

586
00:35:48.199 --> 00:35:50.039
I work with and they say, aren't you afraid this

587
00:35:50.119 --> 00:35:51.920
is going to go around? And I say, no, I'm

588
00:35:51.920 --> 00:35:55.440
not afraid, And I'm not afraid because I'm so confident

589
00:35:55.519 --> 00:36:01.119
that I'm just going to do whatever, that I'm going

590
00:36:01.199 --> 00:36:03.920
to just be successful. One, I'm going to give it

591
00:36:03.960 --> 00:36:07.320
my all. But two, this is so big for the organization.

592
00:36:08.039 --> 00:36:10.400
The organization is going to be behind you. Nobody's going

593
00:36:10.440 --> 00:36:12.800
to let you fail. Right, So a lot of that

594
00:36:12.920 --> 00:36:16.559
is in your own head. But you volunteering for it.

595
00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:20.719
You're in the lead. People recognize you as the person

596
00:36:20.719 --> 00:36:22.960
that's leading, and so they want to follow you. They

597
00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:26.639
want to they want that confidence. So I would say,

598
00:36:26.719 --> 00:36:29.679
you got to take on what's scary. This whole thing

599
00:36:29.719 --> 00:36:35.239
about remote work sometimes can be can be an issue.

600
00:36:35.800 --> 00:36:39.039
Now here's what I mean by that. If you're invisible

601
00:36:39.400 --> 00:36:44.239
and your value isn't coming across, if you're just sort

602
00:36:44.239 --> 00:36:46.559
of this cogg in a wheel. Yes you have a job,

603
00:36:46.679 --> 00:36:48.960
Yes you have freedom, Yes you have the remote work,

604
00:36:49.800 --> 00:36:53.440
but if you want more, you have to be where

605
00:36:53.480 --> 00:36:57.440
the decision makers are. You have to be in their

606
00:36:57.519 --> 00:37:02.159
presence from time to time because they have to see

607
00:37:02.239 --> 00:37:08.079
you and feel comfortable with your capabilities around your decision making. Now,

608
00:37:08.480 --> 00:37:11.880
you can be a leader, let's say in China and

609
00:37:11.920 --> 00:37:17.639
the organizations and say Wilmington, Delaware, But if you are

610
00:37:17.800 --> 00:37:20.239
leading there, if you are leading there, and then when

611
00:37:20.280 --> 00:37:23.320
you're joining the calls and you're making an impact and

612
00:37:25.320 --> 00:37:29.599
what you recommend with what you achieve, that's still remote

613
00:37:30.480 --> 00:37:34.800
and still being impactful. So I would say to people,

614
00:37:35.119 --> 00:37:38.320
just go in like I was told, like you own

615
00:37:38.400 --> 00:37:43.559
the place, meaning it's your purse, it's your project, it's

616
00:37:43.880 --> 00:37:48.320
your thing, put your spin on it, do it with

617
00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:53.119
confidence and be bold and get noticed.

618
00:37:54.239 --> 00:37:55.480
That's what I was saying.

619
00:37:56.199 --> 00:38:03.320
Absolutely, ah powerful. Tell us how can people get in

620
00:38:03.360 --> 00:38:07.719
touch with you? Where they can find your books? How

621
00:38:07.760 --> 00:38:08.599
do you help people?

622
00:38:09.639 --> 00:38:09.920
Yes?

623
00:38:10.079 --> 00:38:12.559
Okay, so how to get in touch with me? You

624
00:38:12.599 --> 00:38:16.480
can find me on LinkedIn at Curtis L. Jenkins. You

625
00:38:16.519 --> 00:38:20.599
can go to my website Curtisljinkins dot com. There you'll

626
00:38:20.639 --> 00:38:23.119
find many ways to get in touch with me and

627
00:38:23.159 --> 00:38:28.239
also to get my book my books, So there's the

628
00:38:28.280 --> 00:38:30.599
only job service book you'll ever need if you're looking

629
00:38:30.639 --> 00:38:35.039
for a job, which again I'm rewriting to be a

630
00:38:35.079 --> 00:38:38.199
bold roadmap to thrive in an age of AI career

631
00:38:38.239 --> 00:38:41.719
reinvention and remote work, which is going to come out

632
00:38:41.800 --> 00:38:45.800
in twenty twenty six. And then there's vision to reality,

633
00:38:45.960 --> 00:38:49.599
stop working, start living, and that's more towards the entrepreneurs again,

634
00:38:49.719 --> 00:38:53.559
still with the same project management framework, but being able

635
00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:58.519
to help different groups of people. And then I have

636
00:38:59.519 --> 00:39:05.280
a course coming out, well I'm sorry, I'm having a

637
00:39:05.320 --> 00:39:08.199
live session that's coming up in January, and I'll send

638
00:39:08.239 --> 00:39:11.920
you the details about this, but it's going to be

639
00:39:11.960 --> 00:39:18.840
a subject called why I Hate Project management Professionals and

640
00:39:18.880 --> 00:39:23.920
I am one, right, and so this is just just

641
00:39:24.599 --> 00:39:28.400
helping project management professionals get a little bit bolder, leveling

642
00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:31.719
up their career and stop making the mistakes that project

643
00:39:31.760 --> 00:39:32.440
managers make.

644
00:39:32.519 --> 00:39:34.440
I interview project managers.

645
00:39:34.360 --> 00:39:39.000
All the time, and so you know I'm hiring them,

646
00:39:39.559 --> 00:39:43.000
I'm firing them, and there's these mistakes that they make,

647
00:39:43.039 --> 00:39:44.800
and I'm just trying to help people do a better

648
00:39:44.920 --> 00:39:48.800
job of either being a better project manager or building

649
00:39:48.840 --> 00:39:55.079
a PMO that gets respect. And so those are the

650
00:39:55.159 --> 00:39:57.719
ways you can find me. I'm also on Instagram, but

651
00:39:58.599 --> 00:40:01.000
I don't really use that, but you'll see some of

652
00:40:01.039 --> 00:40:04.639
my things, like my Vision to Reality podcast that also

653
00:40:05.239 --> 00:40:08.239
featured Diva on it, so you can find that on

654
00:40:08.280 --> 00:40:09.719
YouTube as well.

655
00:40:09.719 --> 00:40:11.039
Oh it for such a pleasure.

656
00:40:12.239 --> 00:40:15.679
I am definitely going to head out to your website

657
00:40:15.760 --> 00:40:18.119
and of course, you know, I see your post on LinkedIn.

658
00:40:18.199 --> 00:40:22.719
So definitely, as you saw, Curtis gave us a lot

659
00:40:22.760 --> 00:40:25.880
of value. If you're looking to grow in your career,

660
00:40:26.920 --> 00:40:33.639
reach out to Curtis and bring that vision to reality.

661
00:40:34.039 --> 00:40:36.400
And thank you Curtis for joining us. And I wish

662
00:40:36.480 --> 00:40:38.199
you all the best in the new year.

663
00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:41.280
Thank you so much for having me, Deva and the same.

664
00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:43.800
This is going to be a great year for us.

665
00:40:44.119 --> 00:40:44.960
Let's go get it.

666
00:40:45.719 --> 00:40:47.800
Absolutely I like that, Let's go get it.

667
00:40:47.880 --> 00:40:50.400
And thank you wonderful audience for being part of a show,

668
00:40:50.440 --> 00:40:53.480
because without you, the show would not be possible.

669
00:40:53.960 --> 00:40:54.760
And I'm going to.

670
00:40:54.800 --> 00:40:59.960
Use Curtis take your words and say let's go get it.

671
00:41:00.480 --> 00:41:04.079
Yes, go get your dream, reach for the stars, and

672
00:41:04.119 --> 00:41:06.480
I'll say even stars are not enough.

673
00:41:06.760 --> 00:41:11.239
Go what you want and you'll definitely get it. And

674
00:41:11.519 --> 00:41:15.599
thank you on for making the show possible technically. And

675
00:41:15.800 --> 00:41:18.039
I want to wish each and every one of you

676
00:41:18.440 --> 00:41:21.480
a very happy new year. And we'll see you in

677
00:41:21.559 --> 00:41:22.880
the next few.

678
00:41:22.719 --> 00:41:25.840
Days, but in the next new year. Be valuntich care.

679
00:41:25.960 --> 00:41:29.800
Until now, thank you for being part of Beyond Confidence.

680
00:41:29.880 --> 00:41:32.320
With your host DV Park, we hope you have learned

681
00:41:32.320 --> 00:41:34.559
more about how to start living the life you want

682
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:37.760
Each week on Beyond Confidence, you hear stories of real

683
00:41:37.800 --> 00:41:41.320
people who've experienced growth by overcoming their fears and building

684
00:41:41.400 --> 00:41:46.000
meaningful relationships. During Beyond Confidence, Vpark shares what happened to

685
00:41:46.039 --> 00:41:48.199
her when she stepped out of her comfort zone to

686
00:41:48.239 --> 00:41:51.320
work directly with people across the globe. She not only

687
00:41:51.360 --> 00:41:54.760
coaches people how to form hard connections, but also transform

688
00:41:54.800 --> 00:41:58.559
relationships to mutually beneficial partnerships as they strive to live

689
00:41:58.599 --> 00:42:01.000
the life they want. If you are ready to live

690
00:42:01.039 --> 00:42:03.880
the life you want and leverage your strengths, learn more

691
00:42:04.039 --> 00:42:08.199
at www dotwpark dot com and you can connect with

692
00:42:08.440 --> 00:42:12.639
wat contact at dwpark dot com. We look forward to

693
00:42:12.639 --> 00:42:13.840
you're joining us next week.