From Cheat Codes to Self-Trust: Stefanie Reichman on LinkedIn, Identity, and Building a Life Outside Your Job Title

Autopilot Versus Ownership

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I think it made me realize how much control I have over my life, which sounds really silly to say out loud. But I think for so long I was really operating on autopilot/slash what do the people around me want me to do? What does success look like for them? And then, like, how do I match their vision of what my success should be?

SPEAKER_00 0:26

What is going on, LM family? Back at you with the super special guest who is a repeat offender. She is the co-founder of AEC Tech Jobs, the dynamo behind more than an engineer, which I absolutely love that catchphrase and everything it's become. She is a public speaker. She is a human, and her name is Miss Stephanie Reichman, and we're gonna have some fun. And also, I gotta warn you, I've known her for years. She's been in, we interviewed, I don't know, maybe a year, maybe two years ago. I just found out that she's got like hypnotic blue eyes. I didn't know that all this time. So that's freaking fantastic. Now, if this is your first time here, you're listening to the Learn Ins and Missteps podcast, where you get a front row seat to see amazing human beings just like you, and how they're sharing their gifts and talents to leave the world better than they found it. I am Jesse, your selfish servant, and we're about to get to know Miss Stephanie. Miss Stephanie, what's happening, sister?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

That is like the best intro ever. I love it. I'm great. I'm pumped. I always love when we get to catch up. We've known each other for a while. I'm always excited to be a Repeat Defender. Thank you for having me on. Thank you everybody for listening. And let's get to it, huh?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Oh, yes, ma'am. Heck yeah. Okay, so I'm gonna start off. Well, get us warmed up because we got some confessions to talk

The Confession About Cheat Codes

SPEAKER_00 2:06

about, but I'm gonna start off with like an easy warm-up question. You've accomplished a bunch of things and you've just had a major move, right? And the AEC tech jobs, that was a new thing. You've brought it to life. You've got co-founders, partners that made that happen. More than engineer kind of took off and became this big, I think, really meaningful movement. And so here's the question: How did you go about building the perfect plan that got you to where you are today?

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Perfect plan? Does anyone build a perfect plan? I this is such a funny place to start because I'm actually not gonna answer your question. And I'm gonna go to the right into the confession because I think that will like set the tone for where we're at right now. My confession is this, and Jesse has promised to not think any less of me after this. But I remember when I came across your posts for the first time. So I've been creating content on LinkedIn for three years. Start in September, it'll be three years. And when I started creating content, I had like sub, like maybe 700, 600-ish like connections that then turn into followers, whatever. And I remember thinking, God, like I should just get on someone's radar who's bigger than me, and that will make like they'll have the cheat codes and they'll know everything that I need to do. And like they will have all the answers that in this moment I don't have. And I watched a live, I think, I think it was a live that you did with Mad Graves, and that was my first introduction to the both of you. But like I had heard, like I'd seen you guys, and like I knew like you guys were like bigger than me, like follower-wise, and and I was like, I need to get on the radar and figure this out, and like they'll know everything. And I just I remember almost being like, I don't even really care if we vibe or if like there's I don't really even care. Like, I feel like I just like I need to figure like I need to figure out how to like meet these people and just just get the secrets out. And I remember we met, and I feel like you just disarmed me so much in like the emotion emotional bungee jumpers we did, and just like this solutionizing that you pointed out that like I really realized I do and have worked so hard on for years now that you've pointed that out to me. And it's funny, like you started this different journey for me where it was like, yes, it is cool to put yourself out there and get there and whatever, but like the impact that you can make can also be massive without it just being a self-serving situation, which I think was like probably where I started out. So yeah, I want to say thank you. I want to say as I was like prepping for this and thinking about this, that's kind of where my mind was at, was like thinking about like where I was when I started this whole journey and like where I'm at now. With it's easy to say, like all these good things have happened, but they've taken literally years, literally a lot of conversations. And the fun part is that nobody's had the cheat code or the secrets for me. It's kind of just like building the plane as I'm literally 30,000 30,000 feet in the air. So long answer for you.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Wow, I love so correct me if I'm wrong. The confession is you didn't have it all figured out.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

No, not even close. Not even I still don't. I still don't.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Yeah, I love, you know, I so okay, LM family out there. Write that down. And I gotta point out that you are a very accomplished professional, not just credential-wise, but in the way that you serve, in the jobs and roles and responsibilities you've had along your career and and beyond. You're not a scrub. You've accomplished big things, you've impacted people's lives, you've impacted business performance, all without a script, a checklist, and all the answers. And I believe that is true for all of us. Am I lying?

SPEAKER_01 6:44

No, I mean, I'm like totally with you there. I think it's been really interesting to kind of put myself out there through content and LinkedIn because I think it made me realize how much control I have over my life, which sounds really silly to say out loud. But I think for so long I was really operating on autopilot/slash what do the people around me want me to do? What does success look like for them? And then, like, how do I match their vision of what my success should be?

Moving To Recheck Values

SPEAKER_01 7:19

So I think ultimately for me, what really started the shift is you kind of referenced it. I recently made a move from living in Las Vegas for the last seven-ish years to the Midwest, which has been a huge kind of life change for me and my family. And I think it's, I mean, any change kind of makes you rethink everything. And I think that question of like, what are my values and what's important to me, and like what is what do I actually want my success to be? And what does success mean to me? And the biggest question for me has been like, what happens when I achieve that level of success that I think I want? So all those like questions are are ones that I'm currently working through.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Oh my sister, massive, massive can of worms you just opened about what happens when I hit the goal, when I hit the target. So we're gonna dig into that. But I want I want to know more detail on Vegas to the Midwest. Was that just because you want to own a farm and start growing corn? What was the motivation there?

SPEAKER_01 8:31

My husband's family is actually in the Midwest, so they're in Milwaukee. So when you're kind of considering where where to move to, it kind of felt odd to start fresh somewhere where we don't know anyone. I'm still I have my toddler who would love to be near his family, so it was just kind of a more of a family move. And Vegas, I feel like, was always temporary. I think we ended up staying a little bit longer than we thought we would, but Vegas is Vegas, so it's a little different.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so you did the time at Vegas. Now it's let's get closer to the family. Hobby's family is up in Milwaukee, and that makes sense. Okay, okay. I could I could dig it.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

I imagine there's some pace of life, and maybe even a little culture shift that you're adjusting to, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, the pace of life is slower.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

And is that good?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

I like it. I'm originally from New York City. So for me, when I was kind of considering what my wanted my life to be, actually, I would actually have to take a step back. I'm still originally from New York. And then I think I always just assumed that that pace of life, like having every meal on the go, that was normal. Everybody was doing that. And then I did a study abroad in Italy where all these New Yorkers are there and they're all like, What do you mean you don't do to go coffee? And the Italians are like, who does to-go coffees? And I think it was like kind of in that moment we're realizing that there's this whole different pace of life that I had never really experienced or grew, wasn't really around, kind of made me think, okay, is this really the pace I want my whole life to be? Now I think Italy is great. I think that might be a little bit too slow for me. So I think I've just generally been on a quest to figure out what is the pace of life that I want. And I did New York, I moved to Wisconsin for my grad school. So Wisconsin isn't new to me. And then Vegas is really, really different too. So the pace here is definitely slower, more family-oriented. Midwest nice is a thing. Everybody loves cheese and eats tons of it, which I'm super into. So it is really different, but I'm loving it so far.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

We want to do the LM Family Member

Community Shout-Out And Reviews

SPEAKER_00 11:06

shout-out. And this one's fresh and hot off the presses from my sister, Miss Renee Glendenning. She actually created a post and she says, Jesse has created a really special community here. If you want to connect with leaders who are working to better themselves and our industry, check out the Construction Leadership Lab. And I love that because we just had our call and she was compelled to create that post, which of course makes me feel special. So, Renee, thank you so much for the shout out. And also for the rest of the LM family members out there, you know I love attention. I love seeing my name, I love the stars and the reviews and the shares. So please do that because it gives me an excuse to shout you out in the future. Nice. Okay, so but what I like about that that I think people could take away is you had a contrasting experience, right? Growing up in New York, different pace, going to Italy, different pace. So then it's like, okay, there's these extremes, if you will. What do I really what feels better? What feels more good or sitting down and drinking a cup of coffee or always being on the run, trying to scarf it down, getting on the subway, on the phone, cussing people out. I'm not saying that you've done that, but you know, it's kind of what we see in the movies. And so it kind of helped inform your your path going forward. Love it, love it, love it, love it. Okay.

The Letdown After Big Goals

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Now, you didn't say this, but this is what I took out of the idea about what do I do after I achieve our goal, my goals. And so I'll kind of give some context in terms of what's happened to me. I want to know if you had the same experience, and then kind of the growth from there. So I'm a very competitive person, and once I commit to something, it sticks in my head forever until I get it done. And then I freaking do it, and I almost exclusively obsess about that thing. And then when I do the thing, I feel like is this it? Is this what I've been there's no parade, there's no bells and whistles, and it I just did it and nobody cares. And I'm the same dummy I was yesterday before I accomplished it. And so now that's not the case anymore because I've made some adjustments, but it was it was off-putting and scary when that happened. So I guess my first question is in terms of the goals, because I know you're very goal-oriented and you execute. Did you have a similar experience? And how did you calibrate your thinking to not let that be the end of the line?

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Yeah, I am super goal-oriented. I I think it's kind of tough because I've had a lot of I try to have really diverse goals, and I think that's really important. So I think this year was like the first year, I would say like more formal goals for the year. But I made sure within that to have goals regarding health and wellness and hobbies, and I I love to cook and bake, so I want some goals around that, and and then also business goals, and then LinkedIn goals, and then so that way it makes me feel not like I'm only pushing on one aspect of my life, but I can just move forward holistically. I am like trying to think of past big milestones, especially like it's always kind of hard to talk about the LinkedIn followers, but I think that's a really easy example. I remember when I hit a thousand LinkedIn followers, I remember where I was, I remember what I was doing, I remember telling the people around me. I remember just being so proud that that was happening. And now last week, I think I hit 16,000 followers, and I woke up in the morning and saw it and was like, that's cool, way to go. And then I just kind of moved on. And I think I kind of surprised myself by how it didn't really matter that much. It wasn't, yeah, there wasn't a parade and there wasn't this crazy moment. I'm trying to get to 20,000 by the end of the year. I'm an engineer, so I'm like, mathematically, we're probably gonna hit that unless something happens. We we are on pace for that experience. And so I was thinking, okay, what so what do we do? How do we celebrate? 20 sounds like a big deal. Like, how are we gonna do that? So I have a little plan for what I want to do, but it's still not anything huge, but just like a celebration for me, for me to kind of appreciate that moment. But yeah, I try to not let the highs, not let the highs be too high and the lows be too low. But every so often I'll get something really exciting where I'm like, oh my God, this happened. I can't believe it. And I just really let myself, I let myself be excited in those moments because they are really big deals. And I often find myself thinking, gosh, the Stephanie from three years ago would freak out if they knew that this was going on. And I think for me, that's been the most exciting part.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Oh, I love that. The Stephanie from three years ago, because yeah, like the Jesse from four years ago would be like, What in the hell are you doing, bro? Like, how did you get there? You don't belong there. It's good, but how did that happen? You know, what's interesting is in your confession, I think you said you felt like connecting with me and Matt was gonna help you get the cheat code to being socially be super engaged on social media. And here we are, fast forward. You've got 17,000 followers. I got seven. You've done smoked me, girl. Really? That is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

It's such different goals, though. They're like so different, I think. Which I think is so exciting with social media. Different people have different goals, and I think there have been times where I've been like, I don't care, I don't want to grow. And then sometimes I'll be like, no, no, no, this needs to happen. We need to hit these goals of certain follower accounts. So I definitely have gotten to the point where I'm like, does it matter? For certain things, I think it does, for other things, I don't think it does. I think it's very you can have a very successful, incredible business and not have 16,000 followers. So yeah, I think you're proof of that.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Well, thank you for that. Yeah, and I I think the key that you mentioned was there's different goals, right? We have different objectives. And this was one of the things we had we actually, this was part of our discussion on this morning's support and accountability call. What helps me not get caught up in the comparison game? Because I know on a if you caught me on a different day, I'd be pissed off after finding like, man, when I met her, she had a thousand followers, now she's meeting me. I suck, right? Like I can get in that state. But a while back, maybe two or three years ago, it was like, what am I I have a business, I have some online products, you you and I have similar path, uh, and I'm consuming content on how to lead generation and freaking all of the all the stuff. But that didn't feel fun for me. It kind of took the fun out of engaging on social media. But I do get tremendous business value for me. There's a lot of business value on being visible and present on the socials. So I had to ask myself, well, what is my goal? What am I trying to achieve, or what's the purpose, the intended outcome of all the energy I spend in terms of, well, just say LinkedIn? And it's oh, I know why I do it. It's to build community. I do it to connect with people that I believe in, that I look up to, that I respect, and to signal to other people, like, hey, if you like this crazy flavor, I'm right here. And once I got clear about that, it's oh, the followers are great, but they're not the primary objective for me. Now, I also know if I had more followers, so folks, if you're listening and you ain't following me, follow me and follow Stephanie. But there's some math I can do that will calculate my revenue relevant to the number of followers I have. So there is like that kind of back tertiary benefit, I'll say, of being of the follower count and et cetera. But I think the core of it is what is the what is your intended outcome in terms of the things that you're working towards? Like for me, when they feel good, for me, the big highlights are when I can see directly that I've contributed to somebody's path. And that all that takes is one person. And when that happens, I'm like, oh my God, that's why I'm doing it. I've got energy for another year. It's not the counts, it's not all the other things are important because they help keep me focused. But the real thing I want is to be able to witness the impact I've had on somebody, which is what keeps me healthy. Otherwise, I singularly focus and forget the world and I get obsessive about stuff. And so, anyways, it's again awesome to yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

I mean, for sure. I think two things I'll add. One is I think I made a conscious decision, gosh, earlier this year, whatever it was, that this was gonna be fun. If this wasn't fun or there was some element of it that's not fun, we're we're not doing it anymore. And that has been so incredibly freeing. Now I'm in a position to do that because I still work full-time, and so I just don't need that. If uh there's an opportunity that comes through that I'm not excited about, I don't have to take it. So that's a really fortunate place for me to be in. And I feel really grateful for that. And I think as soon as I decided I will only do fun things, I think there was a shift in my own content and my own way of looking at it. So I think that that's been really important. And I think often I'll talk to people and I'll be like, Are you even having fun? Do you want to have fun? Do you want to enjoy your life? I think you do, but are you actually consciously thinking about the fun aspect? So I think that's really important for people to. I said it before, you have control over your own life. And if you want to have fun or enjoy life, whatever that means to you, you have control over getting to whatever that place is that you want to be. I think that's really important to say. The other thing I'll say is I love, I love my community. Amazing people there, people that share their stories with me, people that are incredibly vulnerable. And I appreciate that so, so much. I think I always want to make Sure that those people are at the center of what I do. And so sometimes I'll post five times in a week and I'm really busy and I can't respond to comments or I can't respond to DMs and then I'll respond to them all on Friday night or Saturday night. And because I still want to stay in touch with the community, no matter how many comments there are, like I do my hardest to respond to everybody because I think it's so important to just not lose track of that, of the community, of the people that have found someone who found me for the first time, even though I've said the same thing on posts for years. That is the first time, their first interaction with me. And I want to make sure it's the same great interaction that someone got three years ago when they found my post for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Yes, super, super. And I've been I've been focused on on launching the construction leadership lab. So I've been slacking off on engaging in the in the comments when people comment on the junk that I post out there. But it is critically important because that's what it that's the fun part. I feel, I mean, they're my friends in my brain, they're my friends because I talk to them on the internet all the time. Now, so you have like a full-time job, maybe another way to think about it, in the corporate space, right?

LinkedIn Skills That Help Work

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Like a real job, and then you have these other things that that's going on personally. Is that true? Yes, okay, this is true. How has your activity on LinkedIn to the corporate profession, like day job thing, has it had any effect on in that realm?

SPEAKER_01 23:41

Yeah, I think a couple different things here. One is I think it's really helped me own a message and understand how to get a point across. I think that's been maybe the most exciting thing that social media has taught me is you can have a great message, but if you package it wrong, nobody wants it. How do you get to a place where you share stories in a way of connecting with people? How do you use that momentum to help drive something? How do you chain different things, different posts, different ideas together to launch something, to announce something? Like, how do you tease something? That whole refinement of communication, we'll say, is definitely been something that has been like immensely helpful in my job, which I'll I'll say it so it doesn't sound like a secret, but I'm a customer success manager at Bluebeam, which is a construction technology software. So it's that is really exciting to have that skill kind of translate across, but it's also given me different opportunities within the company to be part of different campaigns that they work on and things that I previously maybe wouldn't have raised my hand for or wouldn't have been considered for. So it's definitely been really exciting all the way around, which I'm super appreciative of.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Yeah, I think of it, and it's again kind of how we connected, right? If you weren't active on social media, I never would have found you. And now the message, like the words that you write in the copy and the pictures and all the things, are like, oh yeah, I gotta connect with this human. She's awesome. And so it's a way to signal to the rest of the world how awesome you are, or if you're gonna be a dummy, how dumb you are. That's me. I like to let people know that I'm a goofball, anyways. And I and I my argument with a lot of people. Yes, there you go, authentically me, is that being active on social media will can increase your value within the organization that you're working for. You don't just have to be on social media if you have a side gig. It can absolutely increase your value internal to the organization and also add value to the organization itself because people make associations with an awesome person that works at Bluebeam. Maybe I'm interested in working at Bluebeam because an awesome person like Stephanie works there, and that helps the or like the enterprise, one of the enterprise objectives. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Oh, for sure. I mean, I think that content created by employee, like it's so massive, it's such a massively untapped, I'll say, opportunity. I think it makes me sad because it's been, I'm sure you people like this too, but it's been three years. So I've seen people come and go of they were posting super consistently. Maybe I met with them, maybe we chatted, and then they'll just you never hear from them again. And very often it's because they were essentially told by their employers to cut it out, which I mean, and people with incredible missions and people that want to drive change, want to drive impact, want to anything. And I think it's it sucks. I understand how it is a liability. You never you never really know what someone's gonna say, but ultimately I think that it does make for some really strong advocates for your company when you kind of give them the opportunity, and maybe it requires training and maybe it requires conversations and like all those things I think are very fair. I think for me, it's always kind of a bummer when someone had like all this drive and passion to drive change, and then they were essentially told, stop it or you're done with your job, which obviously what's a person gonna do in that situation?

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Yeah, I that's I hate that. I really I think it's disgusting. And what I'll say about that is the training that's necessary is for the insecure manager to get over themselves. It's really not that big a threat to the organization. You need to assess how much of this is just your insecurities playing into an issue and you making it a corporate issue because most of the conversations I've been involved with similar. A lot of people I know is like, man, well, they I was like, who's they? Their direct supervisor. Like, oh, and what did your direct supervisor say? Well, they said they HR or marketing or you know, whatever. And it's yeah, that's weak sauce, man. That's a manager that just can't see past their nose. And to your point, they squash it. And you're right, it is a scary thing. If you don't do this anymore, you like if you don't stop, you can't work here. My recommendation is awesome. Freaking go work somewhere else that can that understand it, have the forward think that are forward thinking enough and confident enough to nurture and support and guide that, right? Maybe it's not here are the rules, but hey, it'd be awesome if you posted about this a little bit more. We'd really appreciate that. It's a total value to be leveraged if you're not a weak sauce leader. I don't know. Am I just being hard on I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

I won't speak about every single leader in the world, but I'll say that for me, I mean, I had a very similar experience too. I had been working for a year for the company already when I really had this itch to get on LinkedIn. And yeah, the first thought I had was like, what are people gonna say? And what is my manager gonna say? And I did have conversations like, I'm thinking about this, what do you think? And they were like, go for it. We even did a LinkedIn challenge as a team last summer, I think it was, where all of us posted together, and it was kind of a competition of number of impressions and top most engagements and stuff. So it was fun to have the whole company, at least have our whole group in on it and 20 people posting. It was a lot of fun. And I think that's the right way to go about it is if you I think it's more people don't understand it. So then it becomes scary when you don't get it. And I think just having the conversations and and really seeing what's out there. This is the direction that things are trending right now. Like influencer marketing is huge, content creation is huge. The dollar values that companies are pouring into this is massive. So to say as a company of no, we don't agree with this, or no, this isn't the direction we want to go, you have employee advocates, use them. So yeah, I'm hopeful that some of these companies will change their tune at some point.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

I agree a million, million percent. Not just in terms of people converting and buying whatever they're selling. I think the real, the real, real undertapped opportunity is in attracting talent. I really, really believe that that is just so overlooked in terms of, like you said, employees being active, engaging. I think that is a huge contributor to people being interested in working for an organization because cool people want to be with cool people. Smart people want to be with smart people. A website doesn't show how smart or cool their employees are, but their social media can. Anyway, I'll pick on them all the time. And Stephanie, I'm glad you said you're not the one that said all leaders, I'm the one that said it, and I mean it, so too bad. Now you mentioned the word community earlier, and I'm curious when you say community, are you talking about a specific community from AEC Tech Jobs, the more than an engineer community, or just the people that regularly interact with your content?

What Community Means In Practice

SPEAKER_01 31:33

I'll say all of them, maybe. There isn't a formal community if that's your question. But yeah, I would say at this point, AC Tech Jobs, which for anyone not familiar, is a job board that's specific for roles in the architecture, engineering, construction, technology space. So people like me who are civil engineers that maybe or other engineers or other construction professionals who maybe just want to see what else is out there. The job board was built for that. So there's people that find AC tech jobs and then they find me, which I think is really cool. And then there's people who find me and then they go to AC Tech jobs, people who DM me, people who respond to my newsletters, which always kind of feels like sending emails to the void. So people who respond back, I think is always kind of fun. I guess I think of all of everyone as part of the community. I've gotten some incredible messages from people about what more than an engineer means to them, which always I feel like I always have to sit with those for a while because more than an engineer meant so much to me. I I bought a hat. I went out and I put that on a hat and was like, I love this hat for me. This is mine. But then going out and selling them and having people like wearing them and sending me pictures and telling that stuff is so great. The fact that it has just transcended me, it's just like the coolest thing ever. So I would say all of that is the community, which how fun for me. How fun for us.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Oh, a hundred percent. I love that. Yes, yes, yes. Totally, totally get it. So I do have me a more than an engineer hat. I should have been wearing it actually. So I'm and because when when you first said it, I was like, oh, that this is amazing. I told I that it meant something to me. I'm not an engineer, I'm nowhere near an engineer, but more than the label assigned to me is how it resonated with me. I'm gonna start crying. It was it was amazing, and I saw it, I was like, oh girl, this is gonna be fire. And then you did the the the swag thing, and then I mean it just continues to grow. So I want to come back to more than engine in the engineer because I'm also super excited about the AEC tech jobs because we connected when y'all were like it was an idea. I can't remember. So I got to talk to a couple of you, like the co-founders, it was just an idea, and now it's a real active job board that's connecting, like serving its purpose. So, one applause to you, it's freaking amazing. I want to use it as an example to people out there that man, you have an idea, you can bring it to life.

Build The Idea With Low Barriers

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Now, I also know it's not easy to bring the idea to life, and so I want to maybe for the listener out there that's got an idea, Stephanie, that and could use some guidance, right? They're stuck at making taking action. What should they expect in terms of bringing an idea to life like AEC tech jobs?

SPEAKER_01 34:40

Okay, I love this question. Buckle up, but buckle up the barrier to entry has never been lower, and I I'm obsessed with it. I'm obsessed. I'm a civil engineer, okay? I took one coding class in college. I I got a terrible grade. We will not, it was all the letters of the alphabet, it wasn't great, and I hated it. I was like, I I don't have the personality, neither do you, to be like, I'm gonna sit here and that's not me. So for me, I was raised in my upbringing to believe that to be a code, like everything will have to run through coding. If you don't know how to code, it's like success will have a ceiling for you, my friend. And so I've I've always kind of lived in this world. Now, when AI came on the scene, I was like, excuse me, I can code stuff with my words because I words I know, coding I do not. So that was super exciting for me. So I will say, like AC Tech Jobs was also built off of like a more of a plug and play kind of coding thing. But now, like I can build, I have a subscription to something called lovable, which we can probably tag in the show notes, which is like one of those things where like you could just like build apps super easily. So I realized a couple weeks ago that I'm like terrible. Something I spend a lot of time personally doing is like kitchen stuff, everything related to our food consumption of the household, like grocery shopping, meal planning, prepping. I find recipes on Instagram that I just save into the ether but don't know what to do with. Like I screenshot them, like it's such a mess and brings me like unnecessary anxiety. I went on Lovable and took an afternoon and built myself my dream app that does all the things that I want. So it can take the Instagram, extract the recipe, put it into a little library for me, and then I can like meal plan based off that. It still has a couple of kinks that I'm still working out, but I basically built, and it's not anything fancy. I'm not gonna sell it. It's just like I made it like funky 90s colors because that's what I wanted. It was just so like I'm continuously amazed by how easy it is to be like, this thing in my life sucks. I want a solution. You can go and take a couple hours and just figure it out. Like the tools are so cool and like the barrier to entry is so low that you could just get there in a couple hours. The first time you'll make an app, it'll be like 10, 20 hours. The next time, it'll take half. And then the next, it'll take half. And then you'll be like, oh, that's so easy. I'm just gonna go and run to that right now. So that's probably what I would say. If you've got an idea, start. There are so many cool tools out there. The barrier to start are so low, and it feels so good when you get to that place where you're like, Yes, this is exactly what I wanted. And I didn't have to explain this to someone and like them not understanding it, like, whatever it is. It's exactly what I wanted. I built it, it's mine. Thank you very much. Done.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Oh, I yeah, I I I have a confession to make, Miss Stephanie. It's still on my board. I have not created my own AI agent yet, and I have not tinkered around with creating my own app. I done a lot of learning about it, and it's oh man, I know I need to do that. And so it's on the board. I've got some other things that I because here's the thing: I know me. Once I go play, I know the 20 hours up front for the first thing, and it's like, oh, I could do this to everything in my life, and then I just obsess about that. So there's some things that I need to get done before I get there. So that's my my confession, I haven't got there yet. But even without in my head, what you said, like the real critical element is you had an idea, you took an action, and it was iterative. And so, in terms of the LM family member out there, it doesn't have to be tech, it doesn't have to be code, doesn't have to be an app. Take the action on your thing, on your idea. It's gonna take time. The first round, you're not gonna hit a grand slam, it ain't gonna be perfect, and it's gonna take super long, but it's going to be alive. And then the next round is gonna be shorter, it's gonna be faster, it's gonna be closer to what you want it to be, and it's still not gonna be perfect. And then the next round, same thing, the time compresses, your ability to um cultivate and release ideas increases the more action you take and manage your expectations, meaning the first version of it, it's gonna miss the mark. But there's only so much thinking and brainstorming and ideating that you can do before you're just spinning your wheels, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

Yes, yes to all of it. I think the I mean, I think it's so easy to ideate, and I think I always meet with I meet with people who are like, I I have this idea and I want to do this and I want to do that and I want to do this, and it's like, cool, start. Just start, just start somewhere. I think the other realization that I've had as I've created products that is as I've built things is the realization that so much of it is really stemming off the ability to market it, which is kind of a weird feeling.

Marketing Effort As The Real Cost

SPEAKER_01 40:43

I don't know if you've ever had this or what your thoughts are on it. But I think sometimes I get kind of down on I built this really cool thing or I have this really great resource, even if it's free, it's it's completely free, you still have to get the word out. People still need to find your free thing. And so, from that perspective, that's one of the reasons I do really focus on growing my audience, is because I know the importance of having a larger audience so that if if when yeah, when I do, I have that distribution there. But I don't know what your thoughts are on that one, sister.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

I love yeah, yeah. I mean, this might sound a little too lovey-dovey, but I believe the things that I'm trying to put out into the world, the reason I'm obsessed about doing them is because I've seen them help other people. Because it's going to help make somebody's day better. And because I can make somebody's day better, I must. Now, the hard part is that takes a lot of freaking work. It's like the distribution part in terms of just attention, like how many people are gonna be interested in this next stupid thing that I do, right? Um, and so I'm compelled to because marketing, and I'm gonna bounce a question back at you here in a sec, but it's freaking hard, it's not easy, and it takes a lot of work. Um, and there's so many ways to do it to do marketing effectively, but it's necessary if I want to have the impact that I want to have on the world straight up. Having more followers helps that, leveraging social media helps that. Having the email list that is emailing to the void helps that, right? I get it. Now, the other, so for me, it's a little bit reversed in that I know how much freaking effort it's going to take to introduce the idea to users, and like you said, even if it's a free thing, and that helps me manage how many ideas I actually work on, right? So, example, when I when when Jennifer and I co-wrote Lean in Love, the book, like it was fun, it was like I don't it was not fun writing the book, but having written a book was fun, if that makes any sense, anyways. Yes, then it's like how long is it gonna take me to get a million purchases and be number one on Amazon, right? And then guess what? That that still hasn't happened, and I still think people today that I've known for years that don't know there you go, not yet, but there's still people in my circle that don't know that I've written two books. And now, here's here's maybe a more sanitized way of looking at it. The amount of time and effort to market the book is the same to market my consulting services. The return in terms of dollars for book purchases versus my consulting services is pennies compared to dollars. And so, because of that, oh, okay, I'm not going to write another book because of all the effort it's gonna take. I'm gonna focus it on the community and the consulting. And the training and all the other things because the return makes sense. And so for me, just understanding what it feels like now, I would not have known that, Stephanie, until after I published the book and then tried to market it and get it and build awareness about the thing and see how much effort it took to for somebody to actually buy a stupid book. After going through that experience, then I'm like, oh, I had 30 other books in my head. No, I don't, not anymore. So what do you think about that? The amount of effort and energy to market the idea so that people access it as a limiter or a filter in terms of how many ideas you actually put time and energy into.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

Yeah, I mean, I'm like laughing because I've felt all these feelings too. I have not written a book, though, not for lack of thinking about it. I I would actually challenge you to think about whether or not you did you actually think that the book sales would somehow outpace your consulting gig? Because I think that, or not gig business, sorry. Maybe it's the analytical side of me, but I think I've always kind of had that thought in in my mind, like how much effort is this gonna take, and like how much money can I reasonably get from it. I don't know if that's maybe because I'm more looking at that stuff for AC tech jobs, and I just have to be like really mindful of how I spend my time. Maybe I've just grown that over the years, but I do generally try to be careful over the projects that I take on. And like I said before, I need to make sure that a project is fun. And I think if a project is fun for me, then I'll enjoy doing it regardless of it. So, one example, soft, soft tease to a potential later in the summer launch of more than conversations, which is my kind of take on a podcast, though I'm hesitant to call it a podcast, but more than conversations. And one of the kind of ideas there was I love having conversations, genuinely love connecting like this. I hate all the other stuff, uh, the editing and stuff that I don't like. So then it's how do I get to do the things that I love to do, and how do I figure out how to remove or do the less not fun stuff that I can? I'm trying to find a balance in all those things. So hopefully that kind of answers your question.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

It absolutely does. It totally answers the question and reminds me of how nutty I am because you asked, did I really think the book, the revenue from the book, was gonna support me more than my business? My answer is yes. I expected Netflix to be hitting me up to do a series on the Lean in Love book, and then the next step was after I released the Becoming the Promise I'm Intended to Be, Hollywood was gonna hit me up to do a big giant motion picture of, and of course, I was gonna be the lead in the movie. That hasn't happened. I love that for you, and not yet, right? As silly as that sounds, I really that's what I want to happen. So I'm I'll just maybe an easier way to say that is I am not the most practical. My the way I evaluate things is not from the most practical perspective.

SPEAKER_01 47:33

That's fair. I mean about that I think it's good. I think that's good too. I think it's good too. I think I've found that I've often I'm like very realistic. So sometimes that almost stems my own creativity. And sometimes I'm like, well, it's not gonna make sense, and why would I do it for only three people? But to your point, you never really know. And if it makes a difference for three people, sometimes it is worth it. So I think sometimes it's good to be a little delusional. I need I need a little sprinkle of that in my life, too.

SPEAKER_00 48:48

This will serve as evidence that you gave me permission to continue being delusional. Thank you, Stephanie.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

You're welcome. You're welcome. Glad to have you.

SPEAKER_00 49:00

Oh man, I love the conversation. So love this conversation. Before we run out of time, where do we send people so they can connect to all your awesomeness?

SPEAKER_01 49:14

Probably the best place would be on LinkedIn. And yeah, sign up for the newsletter and stay in touch. I feel like the algorithm's kind of funky. So I feel like newsletters are the way to go. I have always been historically terrible about my newsletter and writing it, but I'm committed to connecting with my audience in that way a little bit better. So I'm like four or five weeks strong, so I'm holding on. So that would probably be the best bet. And yeah, drop me a DM and tell me what you thought of this episode and what what's going on in your world because I always love to hear from people what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 49:50

I am a subscriber of the newsletter, and it was kind of that I was like, I think that's where I found out that you moved. I'm like, oh shit, I gotta check in with Stephanie, and then of course I was like, hey, I got an interview. Like, there's a lot has happened since then. Um, okay, so we're not gonna do the Grand Slam question yet. Because I want to help the people out there understand more about the more than an engineer idea, and more importantly, like, what does it mean to you and what impact has it had on the people that have attached to the idea?

SPEAKER_01 50:31

Okay, it's such a loaded question, and I'm probably going to at some point record like a 30-minute solo

More Than An Engineer Identity Shift

SPEAKER_01 50:42

episode of me just talking about more than an engineer because I feel like I could go on forever about it. So stay tuned. But for me, I think it's important to state that I didn't really have that many people that really believed in me, period, growing up. Didn't believe in me, didn't really believe in, especially when I said I wanted to go into engineering. I think it was kind of a joke for a lot of people. I think it was kind of a joke to me too. And I think when I finally got to the finish line of graduation, I was like, oh my God, I'm here. What do what do I do now? And I think that realization that I put myself in a box because I let other people put me there. And I didn't want to be a victim of that my whole life, being like, nobody believed in me, and these people said these not nice things to me growing up, and so now I'm just like doomed forever. I wanted to take back control of my own narrative. And I think for me personally, it really came through like posting content and like engaging with people and the realization that I could, I could be a content creator, I could be better at marketing, and I could be a public speaker, and I could I just I could be all these things if I just let myself get there, as opposed to being like, well, I'm just an engineer, which I've heard in so many rooms engineers saying, Well, what do you want from me? I'm just an engineer. And so I think for me, it was like about really reclaiming my own strength, my own identity, like giving myself the opportunity to grow past this, I'm just an engineer feeling, even though being an engineer and like the studies that like I had to do to get there, the licensure I had to do to get there, like that's one of my most proudest achievements. Like up on my Mount Rushmore is my engineering degree. And yet I'm still so much more than that. So that's what more than an engineer means to me. I think different people have found similar feelings and similar, they've seen themselves similarly in that movement, in that like giving themselves permission to dream for more, whether it's more time with their families or more money, more success, whatever success means to them, a different role. I think just like seeing somebody else saying, I'm a civil engineer and I wanted something different. And then I went out and I did that thing. I think that's a story that people just resonate with and gives them permission to say, she did it and she's okay. So like I can do it too. It's safe for me to do it. And I think people have seen that in More Than Engineer, and that's just something I take so seriously and like so, I'm like, I'm so proud to be that for people. If people choose for that to be the way they engage with me, like I love it. Whether you have a hat or a shirt or like whatever, or you don't, and you're thinking it, like that's really all I want is for people to think about it and be conscious in their careers and their lives and be like, I want more. I'm defining what more is to me, and then I'm gonna go and I'm gonna get it. Mic drop.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

Gangster. Oh my god. Ayes, there's some key things that you said that I want to repeat so that the LM family member out there doesn't miss it. Give yourself permission, break out of the box that other people have put you in. Take control of your narrative, right? Those things again. When I first saw you post the words, I think it was I think it was before the hat. I'm like, oh my god, yes, I I'm not an engineer, right? But this is something. This was I it was fire right out of the gate. It was obvious to me. And it it kind of there was a saying I used to use way back in the day, it was pretty arrogant. And I don't know if you know this or not, Stephanie, but I'm kind of smart. Um I'm very pensive, I think a lot, but I show, I present as this goof bar. What'd you say? There's an authentic version of me that's very relaxed, very playful, and I don't really show all the other stuff. Now, when people discover, oh shit, Jesse's got some depth. I've always in my head, it's like this I like the look on a person's face when they realize the box they've been trying to put me in is too small. Now, that came from the way I operated a long time ago, and I was kind of angry and doing stuff to defy authority in the universe. Gotten over that since then. But to me, like more than an engineer is that is like you don't have to be the little box that they are putting you in, ain't big enough for you, man. But it's up to you to break out of it. And you latching onto the idea, doing the hat sales, because I know that was a lot of work that wasn't a lot of fun, because I've done merch in that way, and that's just not fun at all. But the impact it's had on other people's, you have given people permission to start stretching that box out. And that is probably the main thing that I respect about you so much. And I'm a fan. I look up to you. You're amazing, you're impacting people's lives, so don't stop doing it. Um, all right, I'm getting mushy. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_01 56:34

No, I want to say, I want to say, no, no, no, no. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I also want to level set something that, like, when I started all of this, it wouldn't have been in my wildest, wildest dreams. I own a trademark on more than an engineer. That sentence is crazy to think about. Yeah. And sometimes I I'm just so grateful that I'm there, but the reason I'm there was because I had no idea what was going on. And I'm I'm always like, we're putting one foot in front of the other. I've always refers to my journey as a momentum train, and I will, I will not let my train stop. I am always moving forward. The train is always, it might be moving, it might be like zigging and zagging, it might be like about to fall off the tracks, but boy, it's not falling off the tracks. It is just going somewhere. I I don't know where, but it's just going. And I and I have learned to just love the fact that there is a train. I'm on it. I'm the conductor of it. And I don't know where it's going, but I'm just like, I'm here for the ride because truly the ride has been so incredible. I've learned so much. I've met incredible people. I'm flabbergasted that you think this of me. And I appreciate it deeply. But yeah, I think it's always really important. I never want anyone to look at me and be like any type of idea about my successes because it there is no secret sauce. It is just compounding day in, day out, trying something, failing, trying again, picking myself up again, feeling cringy. It's okay, we're doing it again. We're gonna try again, we're gonna try again. And then eventually it works. And then one day you wake up and you've got 16,000 followers and you've got really cool opportunities, and you're like, what happened here? But it's just small steps every day moving forward on a train.

SPEAKER_00 58:37

I love that, and I know because same, right? I know that if I continue to share my gifts and talents with the world, I will experience a degree of fulfillment that keeps me going forward. And what also happens is I discover new skills and talents, and it puts me in contact with amazing human beings like you. And so I don't same, I don't know where the hell I'm going, but I know I'm staying on this path, and it ain't gonna be a straight line, and I'm okay with that. And so, your your experience is another data point to that, and again, I applaud you and and really value that you've embraced that and you're going down that path because it's just your success and your growth is also whether even the people that never like the lurkers, right? Those are my favorite, the ones that don't engage, but they're taking something from you, you're impacting them in a very positive way in terms of giving them permission because you're doing it, the sky didn't fall down. Well, hell, maybe I'll try it because Stephanie's doing it. You may never know who they are, but I guarantee you, girl, they are out there. And so keep being amazing. Now, are you ready for the grand slam question?

SPEAKER_01 59:56

I'm nervous. I didn't get to see this ahead of time, so I don't know. Am I ready?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:02

Uh

The Promise You Are Intended To Be

SPEAKER_00 1:00:02

oh, hell yeah. Actually, I think based on your response, like the stuff that you've shared and and commented and added to the conversation, it's just kind of you just get to repeat it, but I gotta raise the pressure a little bit because, like I said, I really do respect you. You have had a profound impact on my life, being able to see, because I remember the first calls, you're kind of nervous and not sure, and what's the right way and what's the formula and what's the process, and and now you're like, just do things, just try it, just figure it out. So I've been able to see that, be a witness to your growth and the massive impact that you've had on LinkedIn, on other people. Uh, it's clear that you really give a damn about other human beings in terms of the way you define your community, it's everybody, and it's clear that you're motivating people, right? And the other scary part is you're a role model, right? Yeah, you're an online influencer, but really you're a phenomenal role model for other younglings out there in the world, like straight up. And so, because of all of those things, I think your answer to the question is gonna be phenomenal. So, here's the question What is I'm really nervous? I like it. What is the promise you are intended to be?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:25

Okay, I knew actually that was gonna be the secret question now because I've watched previous episodes. So now that you say it, I'm like, oh wait, that was silly. I knew the question, and I didn't think about a good answer. It's such a big question. I think I I love being the person whenever I think about content and I think about what I want to do and what's important to me, I always the person I'm always creating for is me from four years ago. And that time has always shifted. It used to be me from a year ago, and then it was me from two years ago, and now it's me from four or five years ago, which is crazy to think, just like the evolution of the journey. But that has always been for me. Who does she need to see? Not who does she want to see or who is she seeing, it's who does she need to see? And I think for me, that has extended to so many different things. She needs to see someone who looks put together. She needs to see someone who is taking care of her health and wellness. She needs to see someone who's actively talking about money and the importance of money and not being embarrassed about money. She needs to see someone who's being authentically themselves and is also like achieving corporate success. She she needs to see all of those things. And so I think sometimes I do get kind of overwhelmed with I have a post that goes really well, and then I suddenly have a hundreds of connection requests, which I love, which I love, and I'm so grateful for it. But then there's this huge moment of overwhelm where I'm like, oh my God, all these people, they want to talk and people want to get on calls, and I just don't have the time for all these calls, and I want to be there for everyone, but I can't. And like, how do I manage all those things? And I think I always kind of come back to what did she need X number of years ago, and what can I do for her? And so that's, I think that would be my answer to the question is I would want to be the role model for that person when they're at the lowest point of their own career. What does that person need and how can I help them?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:42

Yeah, of course, perfect. You're giving me more cheers because you're doing it, right? And you're not doing it just for her, you're doing it for a lot of people. I use you for inspiration in in the dark, cloudy times. Uh, so if no one's ever told you, you're doing that for me. And I am grateful to you, Stephanie, for continuing down the path and exploring and being courageous and being you because you have contributed to my path and thank you for that. Did you have fun?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:15

And you've contributed to mine. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I feel like I kind of glossed over at the beginning. I said it, but I want to reiterate it. I think it's people like you that really push

Solutionizing And Closing Gratitude

SPEAKER_01 1:04:25

people to think past how they behave in certain situations. I can't count the number of times I've said to people on calls or in my personal life, are you telling me this because you want a vent, or are you telling me this because you want me to help come up with solutions for you or problem solve with you? I think that's been like such a huge thing that I say so often, and every time I do, I'm like, it's solutionizing. And Jesse taught me that vocabulary because I think it's just about being in tune with yourself and the things that you do, but also in tune with what other people around you are doing. So you're also doing amazing things, and I'm so grateful that I was a selfish, selfish little lady a couple years ago and just wanted to get to know you for very selfish reasons. And I just feel like I learned so much about just being a genuinely better human. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:20

Before you make me cry, we gotta end this call, sister. Thank you for being generous with your time, Miss Stephanie.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:28

Of course. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.