Client Case Study

FROM SCATTERED TO SEEN.

Joanie spent five and a half years cycling through jobs after a COVID-forced career pivot, unable to explain what she actually did next. She landed a Showroom Director role five blocks from her home by learning to name her own value.

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The Challenge

Three jobs in five and a half years since a COVID-forced pivot out of architecture strategy, with no clear narrative for what came next.

The Shift

Built a real value proposition and career narrative instead of a scattered list of past roles, and used a curated outreach list to have direct, purposeful conversations.

The Outcome

Landed a Showroom Director role at Redwood Outdoors, a sauna and cold plunge company five blocks from her home in Santa Monica.

Olivia Gamber

A Note From The Founder

Olivia Gamber, CEO

Joanie came to us mid-story, not at the start of one. COVID had shut down her strategist role at an architecture firm right as she finished business school, and what followed was five and a half years of jobs that never quite stuck. Startups that expired. Companies that went under. A resume that kept growing longer without ever adding up to a direction.

She told us later that it was hard to synthesize, by herself, what she actually wanted to do. That is the trap generalists fall into. You have done enough different things that you can talk about all of them, and none of them add up to a single sentence someone else can repeat back to you.

What struck me most about Joanie's story is the day she enrolled: a day close to a car accident day. She showed up anyway. That is not a small detail. The work does not wait for a good day to start.

Five Years Without a Narrative

Joanie

So when COVID happened I had just graduated from business school and I did a complete career pivot. I was a strategist at an architecture firm and unfortunately all of our business went on indefinite hold.

Ever since I hadn't really found my narrative of what my new career was because it just felt like I was taking positions at startups that expired or the company went under. And so I had three different jobs in about five and a half years where I was at the same career for about 10 years prior to going back to business school.

“It was hard for me to synthesize by myself what exactly I wanted to do”

Building a Value Proposition, Not a Résumé

Joanie

...also as we all know blindly applying just through LinkedIn or even any job sites it's not successful. The success rate is very minimal... I've gotten some great connections through that excel sheet that you have had some great conversations that also enabled me to really think about the person on the other side asking the questions... I reached out to people in my I highlighted I copied the document and highlighted all the ones and I just had really nice conversations with everybody.

“Creating your own value proposition and really thinking about what you bring to the table and being able to succinctly explain it really helped me because I'm a generalist.”

Joanie

There's a lot of fake news out there a lot of fake people and fake jobs and so getting into your authenticity with how you're positioning yourself I think is the mindset that it gave me that really helped me to just go for what I want.

Five Blocks From Home

Joanie

So I am going to be a showroom director for a company called Redwood Outdoors which sells saunas and cold plunges and it's five blocks from my home in Santa Monica and it was happenstance. I went to an event and the CEO was there and I just felt very confident after going through this narrative in my head going through your course. Just really what I used to do is what I'm going back to doing basically. I was in sales and I pivoted away from that but I think that my experience since with all of I just think I'm ready to go back to that.

Olivia Gamber

It sounds like you really just own the process and you execute it and you know I would just say keep using the process from here because it never ends right and just keep building.

Joanie

I still have a lot of work to do in communicating my value and so I see this as something that I will use going forward in how I operate in any role in any professional capacity so it wasn't just to get the job it was also to train my mind to be thinking about that going forward which is lifelong for a career.

“I still have a lot of work to do in communicating my value and I see this as something I will use going forward in any role, in any professional capacity, which is lifelong for a career.”

Ready to Stop Applying?

Joanie spent five years applying blind before she built a narrative worth telling. If your background feels scattered instead of strategic, this is the same work.

Book Your Career Diagnostic → Watch More Results
Read the full transcript

[Question shown on screen]: So tell us just in a couple of minutes here, what was the role that you landed specifically? Are you excited about it?

Joanie: when COVID happened. It's Olivia it's kind of a long story. So when COVID happened I had just graduated from business school and I did a complete career pivot. Um I was a strategist at an architecture firm and unfortunately all of our business went on indefinite hold.

Joanie: ever since I hadn't really found my narrative of what my new career was because it just felt like I was taking positions at startups that you know kind of expired or the company went under. And so

[Question shown on screen]: What were your biggest takes away and how it helped you land this role? What did you feel were like the talk to through the three biggest takeaways for yourself?

Joanie: so it was hard for me to synthesize um by myself you know what exactly I wanted to do

Joanie: I just felt very confident kind of after going through this narrative of in my head going through your course.

Joanie: I am going to be a showroom director for a company called Redwood Outdoors which sells saunas and cold plunges and it's five blocks from my home in Santa Monica and it was happenstance. I went to an event and the CEO was there

Joanie: but I think that my experience since um with all of I just think I'm ready to go back to that. Being in person as well. I'm not uh I'm not as good on Zoom.

Joanie: creating your own value proposition and really thinking about what you bring to the table and being able to succinctly explain it and really thinking about like taking a step back and really thinking about that piece of it really helped me because I'm a generalist. I do

Joanie: but I really think it was mainly just about helping me craft my career narrative and the value that I bring

Joanie: I've gotten some great connections uh through that excel sheet that you have um had had some great conversations that also enabled me to really think about like the person on the other side

Joanie: I reached out to people in my kind of I I highlight I copied the document and highlighted all the ones and I just had really nice conversations with everybody.

Joanie: there's a lot of fake news out there a lot of fake people and fake jobs and so getting into your authenticity with how you're positioning yourself I think is the mindset that it gave me that really helped me to just go for what I want.

Joanie: when you're unemployed you get a lot of that spam linkedin um a lot of a lot of wasted time and energy on things that are very materially relevant if you will

Olivia: would just say keep using the process from here because it never ends right and just keep building and it's so great to see you got the breakthrough so congratulations yeah and thank you for that because that was actually

Joanie: something that I wanted to say is that I feel like I said in an email to Ryan you know I'm so excited got this job I still have a lot of work to do um in communicating my value and so I see this as something that I will use going forward in how I operate in any role in any professional capacity so it wasn't just to get the job it was also to train my mind to be thinking about that going forward which is lifelong for a career