how to get into tech w/ashten fizer

full transcript

auto-generated from the audio, so expect a few typos. the audio is the source of truth.

Hello, hello. Thanks for listening to Guidance Counselor 2.0. Listen, I want to give you a quick rundown of what this podcast is and what you're about to get into as you listen to these episodes. We had Guidance Counselors in middle school. We had Guidance Counselors in high school, but we didn't really have Guidance Counselors in college and now as professionals, we don't really have anybody to turn to to ask a quick question to learn something about the job search or to navigate your career. And so that is what I want this podcast to be for you. I want it to be a tool for you to navigate the job search and your career.

So that being said, I hope you enjoy this episode. And if you need to reach me, Taylor at vaco, VACO.com is how to get in touch with me, old fashioned email, social media at T D S and T D E S S E Y N. And finally, please rate and review this in the app store because I want this to be discoverable for others so they can navigate their careers. Hope you enjoy the episode. All right, we're live. be Tuesday everybody when I say everybody I mean just me and Ash and right now because this has got to get through the interwebs and just let people tune in so there's no one here quite yet.

But you know what listen listen I say I'm excited a lot. I'm a generally excited person but I'm even more excited today because there are people and Ash and I promise I'm not just saying this. There are people that get on backstage and just have this energy that I can tell they're passionate and Ash is one of them. And so I'm really, really excited to catch up with Ash and today. She's a wealth of knowledge and it's going to be a blast. So Ash and thanks for joining me this morning. I appreciate it. Absolutely. I am really happy to be here. I'm just running around, turning off some of my computer.

No, you're good. You're good. I will keep running on mouth real quick. So for those of you who didn't welcome, good morning, say, hey, would love to hear from you. The reason why I tell people to say, hey, I was talking to Ash and about this behind the scenes. I said, I said the show kind of started out as just away from me to help people. Then it kind of turned into an actual podcast, then it turned in the kind of the lately I realized is the networking platform. And so this, so the reason I tell people to say, Hey, to engage, to comment, to throw up your favorite emoji, whatever, is to bring awareness to yourself.

I'm sure Ashin can attest to this. One of the most important parts of networking is literally just showing up and just showing up being present, saying, Hey, and being consistent. And so that's why I tell people on this show every single morning to say, hey, to be engaged. Cause there's a lot of people here who found their mentors, mentees, who have found jobs, who have found new friends. And so the reason why I tell people to say, hey, to engage is to bring visibility yourself. Ashton and I, we're not in the metaverse, not yet. Not yet. We're not in the metaverse yet. But. So that being said, we're not, there's no avatars hanging around, right?

Like I don't see you and other people don't see you. And the only way for people to see you is for you to engage, to comment, to, to like and all that jazz. So please do that. We got some people trickling in already Omar, Yuri. I hope I pronounced that correctly. It's good to see y'all. Shayna, Erica, Joshua, Michelle, Chris, my man. Hey, Ash, look at you. Chris, that's great to see you. JC, my guy from Memphis. It's good to see you man. Memphis in the house. So, second thing, ask questions. The reason why I bring people on is for you to actually ask questions to people who know what they're doing.

And this is the only time for you to ask questions and they have a captivated audience where they don't have to bill you for it, right? So take advantage of it. So also, I wanna give myself a little plug, I'm gonna be honest, but I just announced that I will be keynoting that conference in Wisconsin in July. So I'm very, very excited. Please go check out that conference. I think it's that.us. Clark sells doing amazing things with that conference. So go check them out. They are incredible, very excited. Hopefully see all in Wisconsin in July. But anyways, that's enough about me. Ashton, let's get the people what they want.

Are you all canceled out of emails now? Oh yeah. Okay. Yes I am. But I did start looking up that conference. So I might have to put that out. Yeah. Clark, those two conferences, he has one in Austin and one in Wisconsin. I went to the Austin one in January and it was great because I just ate a tacos the entire time. So that was great. That's what you do in Austin. Yeah. 100%. That was barbecue. Terry Blacks, have you been to Terry Blacks? And. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. But I might be a Franklin's barbecue kind of girl though. Well, here's the problem though. I'm not waiting outside nine hours to go to Franklin's.

That's why you get there early. It's an event. That is your day. It's an event. OK. I got to block out like half your day for Franklin's. And then you make sure you get enough to take home on the plane ride as well. So. And then you just really feel terrible about yourself when you were in your hometown. Exactly. Yeah. But it's not working. So when I was a Terri Black, so last time I got a little barbecue, I got two helping some mac and cheese. I'm a sucker for mac and cheese for the record. That's kind of my weakness. All right, anyways. This isn't a barbecue podcast.

I promise Ashton, give it an intro about yourself. So hey, I'm Ashton. It says talent brand unicorn, but I do a lot hand in a lot of pots. So also a designer, also a DJ, and also someone who is neuro divergent with a nonlinear background. So we have a lot to talk about today. And also speaking at render this year, so make sure you get your tickets, sign up, get them water hot because it's going, it's going to be some heat at render. I will collect. Correct. All right. So why don't you give a shout out to a few more people who have tuned in.

Chris. John. I think this is you Michael, Alex, Chris, Hey Heather, Louie, Heather, Michael, Yolanda, it's good to see you, it's good to see you, Esther, it's great to see you as well. Cool, we got a full house today, I love it. Alright, so we're going to talk about non-linear pass against tech. This is a topic I'm pretty passionate about, especially as of late. There's a lot of ways to break this down, but Ash, if you just want to kick it off and just kind of give some general thoughts, then I'll start peppering you with questions based on what you say. Absolutely. As a person that has absolutely the most non-linear background into tech ever created.

And, you know, not even trying to brag. So if you have a more non-linear background, I would love to hear about it like we can share stories. But I think it's so important that a lot of people realize even if your background isn't like completely tech, first of all, whole world has tech in it. So you have done technical things in this array of work and skill skills and backgrounds that you have. Those are all transferable skills and it's really all about looking at your resume, looking at all the things that you've done and re-wording it so that it fits into this industry. Like I tell people all the time like you weren't aligned cook at McDonald's, you were a quality assurance person who ensured that customers received the best quality product every single time.

You have to think about what you've done and really rephrase it for this new industry because we're all just a culmination of all of these skills that we pick up in life. So they're going to get you. So I love that. I love that. So let's talk about your background real quick, like you went over with me backstage, it's kind of crazy. So let's go over that. Just a tad. So when to school for Pali Sai, and then came out and did political social media strategy, and that was like back in the day when that wasn't really a big thing. And like Obama had just started using it, like not trying to like age myself and nothing, but you know, it really wasn't, you know, very popular.

And so I was like one of the few people there, I realized I was there to change the world at the time? Well, I'm going to do it real quick. How did you, I'm always fascinated. How did you get that job out of college? So I have a close friend of the family that is in politics. And I was looking for work because it was extremely challenging, especially if you didn't get all of the internships at all the right places and get it asked to come back. So it was, campaign season was kind of ramping up and there were needs, especially for like social media strategy and those things that the older folks in the political world really didn't have the skill set in yet.

And that's where I kind of floated in was being young, knowing social media and also knowing political strategy. So I melded those things together into a job, a career of some sort. I love that. All right. All right. So, so, so keep going on your crazy journey. Okay. So was there to save the world? No one else was got jaded really fast, ended up like abruptly quitting with no other job. I haven't ever done that before in my life. And so ended up on a ray of different jobs to where I had done everything from daycare, art teacher to best buy geek squad, to even waiting tables at Barney's New York, where George Lucas was one of my favorite customers.

So... That's awesome. Oh my great, it was crazy. That's crazy. Got a funny story about that on my last day there too. But anywho, and then finally applied for a role at GoDaddy coming in for hosting support, which was hosting sales and support. So again, sales is a really good way to break into tech. If you're looking, just getting your foot in the door, you're the type of person that can work with a space that has upward mobility opportunities. So came in with hosting support, realized that was terrible at sales, got really good at the technical parts, moved through the company on the technical side, went into website development and design, started speaking at conferences about design.

And then my current boss who was in Talent Brand found me and brought me over to the talent brand space where it's not not not a lot of people who aren't in recruiting have heard of it. But basically it's a space where you get to combine brand and marketing and those like recruiting numbers and and data to really put together some awesome strategies to help people find their dream job. So it's actually like fun and fulfilling at the at the same time. Get out of town. That can happen. That can happen. All right, so excuse me, let's dive into so many places to go in this conversation.

Let's talk about bootcamp. Let's talk college, right? Let's talk college. Let's talk bootcamp. I think you and I shared this backstage. I was just on a one-on-one counseling session with an individual yesterday. And she was like, I just did my two-year associate. She goes, I don't know if I want to go back. learn anything. I said, we don't have to. Yeah, so let's go back to that. So, you know, as a millennial, you know, I did the millennial instructions, you go to school, you do good, you come out, you're given a job, and that wasn't the thing. So, you know, what we're finding now, and I believe that that a lot of that came of that era where we were coming out of school and not finding work, is that we have these boot camps that have come up.

We have a lot of these certification programs that are allowing people to either get into tech instead of going through full four year programs, or pivot their careers, mid-career, and move into technical roles. So while I do say absolutely boot camps are dope, like you don't have to go to a four year college. at the same time, you do have to do your research into these boot camps. That's on my back. All boot camps are not made equal. They're not. And as probably a lot of us have seen on Twitter lately, a lot of them can be a little scammy. So you do wanna do your research and some of the things that you definitely wanna look for are boot camps that have partnerships with companies that in that partnership, that company works closely with the folks in the bootcamp, but also that bootcamp helps you place, get job placement after the program, either with those companies or with other companies.

So a lot of the biggest ones that you wanna look for, those green flags are the ones that are really helping you with job placement, post bootcamp completion or certificate completion and have a high success rate when it comes to that placement. Like a lot of them will claim placement and then like two people get jobs. Like you really want those boot camps and programs that are focused on getting you into those roles and breaking folks into tech. 100%. Yeah, Michelle comes in here, tech schools and boot camps have done more for me than my bachelor's in business management. Yeah, I got a business degree too, Michelle.

Yes, it's useful but didn't get me a good job. So yeah, I mean, listen, what did you do, actually what did you do for internships in college? Were you encouraged to do them? I wasn't, which is crazy. So I was blessed that my mother encouraged me to do internships in college. Because had she not, I would have never known that I needed to hang out in the career services office. And a lot of people don't realize that. And what's even scarier as you know, I'm working through, oh, I'm a pups in the background. I love it a lot. As I'm working through, everybody say hi to my stepdad.

As I'm working through the rule. A lot of these events and going to a lot of these conferences, it's so competitive for students now. Right. And getting them into these roles, like I can't imagine trying to get to a Grace Hopper Conference or an Afro Tech as a freshman or sophomore in order to remain competitive. So I think I was blessed enough that I came into this world at a time where it was a little less competitive. Fewer people knew about trying to get the internships. And it was almost like if you know, you know kind of environment. But as we're learning now, like internships are key to getting those roles after school if you are going to go to school route.

So a lot of times, you know, I hear people complain like I just graduated and they're looking for job experience. Yeah, they're looking for those four to three, three to four summers where you would have been in an internship gaining that experience. So yeah, I mean, and I'll, you know, and I get my brother props on this, my brother. So my brother, so I, so the joke between he and I is my brother went to diet business school. He went to hotel, restaurant, tourism management. And so a lot of similar classes, not as quiet as in depth, but I will tell you this, that school had it right.

They required two internships before you graduated. And the actual business school did not that I was in. So my brother found an internship with a social media marketing company out of Nashville. He worked there and got a job out of college with that agency. So I just think, you know, and Ash, I don't know if this is too bold of a statement. I mean, I know hot takes do well on the internet, but I just listen, outside of being a lawyer and attorney at a doctor, attorney lawyer, same thing, doctor and account and account it. I just, I just don't see the need in college.

I mean, don't, don't get down that rabbit hole. I know. I know. Yeah, I mean, I just- I can moderately scam me. Now what I will say about college, and this is what I will give to my school, Howard University, even though I technically do not use my degree in what I do right now, there were so many life skills that I did learn on campus and being alone and getting through that. That college did present a smidgen of cushion when mistakes were made, just a smidge, if anybody went to Howard, you know that A building, they didn't cut you no slack. But it taught you how to advocate for yourself, how to stand up for yourself, how to gather yourself and have your stuff in order because you had to in order to make sure that things were done right.

So that is the thing that I will say about going away, like leaving the house. Sure. And having that part aspect, that life experience. Because if you notice, there are a lot of like major CEOs and things that barely have that matter. So definitely life experience on top of whatever route you take is huge. So don't negate that for a second. So a little role play here for a second. So let's say I'm in college, right? And I don't know what to do with my life. With my life. Go ahead, unenroll and go home and figure it out. Don't waste this money, little baby. Okay.

Well, that's the first thing. That's the first thing. Like say that one more time. Say that one more time. It's like go ahead and unenroll. Save your money. If you don't know what you're doing, don't waste the money. Okay. I plan to go down this route here. This is my love stuff. I think it's early. So do you think that you need to be in college and know what you do before college? Like do you think you need to know at least have an idea before you go to college? Cause a lot of people are trying to figure it out in college. And I just think that's not good.

I think that you need to have at least an idea. Even if that, even if you end up pivoting halfway through, because you've gotten your prereqs, you've taken a couple of the 101s for your major is you're not feeling it, you feel like pivoting. At least you came with an idea and you're not spending six to seven years there after that pivot, you know, instead you're doing five because you decided to pivot. I think absolutely you need to have some sort of idea going in what you're wanting to get out of it. And I think that's from a range of things from knowing your major to even what you're going to do with that major once you graduate, how is it going to make you income?

Because yes, while it's all fine and good to have these very lofty dreams about going to school to be an arts major and things like that. If you know that you're not coming out top of the crop in your dance class, what's your minor to make sure that you're bringing in income? So, you know, that's my biggest thing. Like if you don't know what you want to do do not feel pressured to immediately go into school. Take time to figure it out. I know they claim like only rich people have time for that gap year. Don't make it a full gap year. Maybe like go to a trade school.

go to, I did cosmetology school in the midst of me trying to figure out what my next job move was going to be. You know, explore things. You never know what you're interested in until you've been exposed to it. So absolutely, do not waste your money trying to figure it out. While you are there, it is very expensive to do. So have an idea before you get there. Okay, okay. That would be a great question. Ashton, Ashton, how do I find out? How do I find out what I want to do? I'm just, I graduated high school and how do I find out? Well, one of my favorite phrases is, everything is googlingable.

So, you know, you started. I mean, YouTube, listen, like... YouTube University is a hell of a place, okay? Yeah, 100%. 100%. I've done some magical things, changed batteries, checked for corrosion in my car. I don't know nothing about cars, okay? I have done some art. I really do not turn on one for the record. Yeah. So I would be very focused. You use the things at your fingertips as you look at the world. Look at the world as jobs. Like I don't mean to like put it in such like bleak terms, but like everything that people do, every function in this world is a career of some sort.

Start if there are things that you see that people do that you're like, oh, that's really cool. Cool. Figure out what career path that is. What career is that that does that work? And then start looking up what entails in that. How do you get there? What are the steps? Yeah, let me get some comments here. I really, really like, Alec comes in, I had a buddy who unenrolled during college, went to get a regular job, found out he would he want to do and came back with a new major, would have never found it, loved that. Michelle, I get goosebumps when we talk about good things, I'm getting goosebumps right now, it's wrong to something.

I joined the military to figure out what I wanted to do and let the military pay for my degree. Not a bad idea at all. That's a big one I wish I would have done. Really? Really? Yeah. I regret that I didn't under all, I was so naive. Well, this, and Elliot, it's funny, because I just thought I told Ashton this backstage. I said, I wish I had something like this show when I was in college, because I had no idea. Yeah, my degree is worthless. So then checking, yeah, I mean, I. Okay, well, okay, I'm gonna stop you there, Elliot, because no degree is worthless.

As I said before, we are all a culmination of everything that we have experienced. Everything that we've experienced has created skills. So even if you're not directly using things that you learned for that degree, there are things that you had to do in the getting of said degree, in the completion of classes and work that you picked up these skills along the way. So don't say it's completely worthless. Just change the way you frame that situation and look at it from the standpoint of, so what am I using from that time period? I love that. And what is the difference right now? Yeah, and I think, so I think when it comes to looking back on it, I'm trying to put in the words, right?

So for me, so I grew up in the restaurant industry. My dad ran a restaurant, and he's always been the restaurant industry. I didn't know anything about any nine to five jobs. I just didn't. I didn't know they existed, any of that. And so my thing is, is like, I didn't know what else was out there. So I'm trying to figure out, I know you said like YouTube, but like what are some other like ways people can go out and get experience from the nine, in the nine to five world? I think it's, I know I feel like I'm repeating this question again, but like I'm trying to just like, trying to put myself back in my shoes.

I didn't know what nine to fives were. I didn't know what LinkedIn was. I think LinkedIn. I think I want LinkedIn to just scroll and learn. LinkedIn is huge. LinkedIn, LinkedIn learning, which used to be what was at linda.com back in the day. Yeah, there's a ton of resources. Udemy, scroll through masterclass.com. Don't pay for anything, but see what's in there. Yeah. There's so many free learning courses and it's not just for tech, it's for all of these different industries. If you wanna learn how to write screenplays, there are boot camps for that. If you wanna learn how to do HVAC, there are trainings for that.

Like you can explore these things and really try to figure out, and that's really what my time was after politics was floating around to all these different jobs and industries and things like that and figuring it out and figuring out what I want it to do. Cause had I never done them, I wouldn't, I wouldn't know that I definitely didn't want to be a server the rest of my life. That fast cash was cool. Yeah. And there, and there. Well, so you said something, you said something about bouncing around, I grew up in a household and listen, this isn't a slide at my parents. They, they, they wash the show from time to time.

So this is not a slide at my parents by any means. But I think it's the generation, right? The generation of you stay at one place, you dig in, you don't necessarily experiment or bounce around. And now on the other side of it, give yourself permission to bounce around. Because if you like, I looking back on it, I hated the restaurant industry. I've always said this two things. I worked, I learned working for my dad. One, how hard he worked to provide for our family. and two, I never, ever want to do it, ever again, right? But like, I didn't know what else was out there.

I didn't go on YouTube. I didn't talk to people, what do you do? How do I get a nine to five? And I think if you're watching this now and you feel stuck and you hate what you do, it's okay to make a move. Yeah. It's okay. Actually, it's imperative for you to make a move. If you wake up every morning hating what you do, it is imperative for you to make a move. that that weighs on your mental health. Absolutely. That kind of stress they say can bring down your IQ. It is imperative that you can be more than you can. That explains it for me.

Stop it. But it's so important that in those moments, you do start exploring because also, it could be a sign that you do need to move. You're feeling uncomfortable. You're feeling this discomfort because it is time to make a change. So pay attention to those things. So yeah, I love this. So many stories are being shared right now. My son did time in the military, got out and ended up with a maintenance planar job at Frontier Airlines while he was doing cybersecurity degree. He's getting his college paid for it and making a good salary for 20 something. He also had the option to pivot into a cyber job with the airline down the road.

I love that. Another one, Louie comes in, a friend of mine spent three months in a podcasting boot camp to try to find a full time role in that field. I love that, it's different. I would say like with the podcasting one that's so cool because not just podcasting radio Anything Don't get me started. I mean I've been able to employ so many people because of content and Like one guy for example He was he wanted to be a designer and he came on with me He started out free as an internship because I offer internships if anybody wants to get involved in content creation hit me up We have internships.

He started as an intern but he was looking and reading my stuff every day and he applied it and found a design job at Verizon. So again, it's one of these things where I think, you know, just being involved and being curious is so important. Let's, so I know this doesn't like huge pivot, but I do want to talk about and give people the permission to not be a developer right out of school. Cause I feel like there's this pressure right now, like I got to be a software developer, I got to make six figures. I mean, I'm not going to disagree with the I got a may six figures part.

This economy is a little while, but. But no, you should feel very comfortable not going in and following whatever that dotted line path is that's been outlined for you by whatever guidance counselor at school or whatever the schema is or whatever glass door says is the norm. Like again, give yourself a chance to have life experiences and explore. Like how do you know this thing that you may have, so you may have majored in it, you may have made sure that every single internship not is in it. Talk about that. And you haven't experienced anything else. So how do you even know that this is the thing, that this is the role?

There may be roles that need those same skills that you can then explore and try to figure out if that's the lane that you want to be in. If that's if that's the industry that you want to be in. Yeah. Because also thinking of just thinking about this just in a in a best way, explain it is in tech. If you want to be a software engineer, think about what industry. Every industry has software engineers. Do you want to work at a tech company? Do you want to work at a transportation company? Do you want to work in entertainment and media? So you also, there's an array of things to be thinking about when going through school, going through these boot camps, figuring out what the next steps are.

Don't feel so forced to just fly into that next step because also burnout is real. All right. That's not a fake thing that we've just made up to sell you self care things. It will really happen. You can get burnt out. Yeah, especially if you're not pleased with what you're doing. If you're if you're not feeling fulfilled in your work. Yeah, you know, I was talking to my brother about it. My brother, product owner. And you know, he he he basically was like, I'm realizing that so so my my brother's very creative. He was he always took the art classes growing up. He actually took a cooking course in high school, was a part of apprenticeship at Johnson & Wales, like he loves to cook and he loves to create.

And he's very good at being a product owner because he understands the people's side, he understands the marketing and kind of branding, like he understands all that. But what he's realized, and I think this is what he's dealing with, and Brandon, if you watch this, let me know, you can text me if I'm wrong, But I think he's realizing that the industry matters because he's told me a few times he was like, man, I kind of want his dream job is to be a product owner at Toast. You know, the software company in the restaurant industry? Because Brandon's like, I know the industry. I go, yeah, you want to grow up in that.

If there's anybody who should be in it, it's you and I because we grew in it for 25 years. And so like, Brandon's been talking about that. So, you know, again, you know, actually I'm so glad you brought that up because I don't think enough people actually talk about finding a job in the industry they're passionate about. Mm hmm. Because I thought I was passionate about the media industry until I worked for a couple of media companies. And I was like, whoa, you guys want a lot of work for it. I wasn't going to, I'm glad you said it. And so I realized that wasn't where my heart was.

Mm. So. But it's so true. I mean, it's so true. I think where your heart is, I think it's such a good statement because I feel like people are like, what's wrong with me, what's wrong with me? And they're unhappy and they're unhappy and they're unhappy. And I just feel like, you know, listen, in full transparency, I've been, I've been dealing with it too. Burnout, maybe sometimes not being the happiest as I should be. Have you ever asked you have a lot on your plate? Yeah. Well, that's... you and my wife both. So, but the thing is, is so I do it the comparison game, right?

And, and you know, because, you know, we're in a sales industry. And if you look, there's a scorecard that is released every week with all of our numbers and you see where everybody is and you can essentially know how much everybody makes, right? And, and, and I know there's a lot of people that make a lot more than me and it sucks. It sucks. And to be totally transparent on the show, I took a step back, probably two steps back financially over the last two years, not to mention what the economy is pushing right now. And so while I post all these things, it looks like I'm busy, like there's still a consequence.

Like I am dealing with some consequences. But I will tell you this, while it is stressful right now, I'm probably now the happiest I've been. Because I'm doing the thing that I love and I have leaders who support me doing the thing I love. And it's not making me the most money. I could have stayed heads down and been just a recruiter and probably made way more money than I'm making right now But it wasn't gonna be fulfilling to me. I have a question for you. How did you figure out? What was going to make you feel fulfilled? So it's a great question. So I was very unhappy late like the summer of last year and it kind of it kind of It kind of came to a point.

We took a late trip. It was me, my wife, my daughter, and her parents. And we went to Chattanooga. It was great. So peaceful. Found a little lake house on the lake and stayed there for three days. And I was so in my head. I told my wife, I said, hey, I'm leaving my phone and I'm taking my journal with me. And Jackie, my wife, no, I'm obsessed with my phone too much. And then also too, I don't journal that much. She was like, is everything okay? I said, I need to clear my head. I need to clear my head. Are you sick? Did you still miss out?

You let her, what's going on? Put me in a bottle. Don't worry about it. You'll find it later. But basically I wrote down and I talk about this pros and cons list. What I love, what I hate about the job that I have right now. And I went through and I realized there's actually a lot more pros to do. There's a lot more pros in this job than I realize. And there's, and this is what I really wanted. So I took that list and I basically used that and kind of positioned myself within Vaco to do what I want to do. So, okay. Okay. So how did you figure out with some beside you?

Oh, we switched. Why are you interviewing me? Why are you interviewing me? I'm about to lead you somewhere. We're going down this path. I love it. So outside of your role, how did you figure out all of the other things that you wanted and needed to do to continue having that fulfillment? Well, I mean, I think, hopefully I'm answering your question, but for me, I had to do, I had to actually be still, I had to be still. And being still for me, very difficult. And when I say be still, here's the deal, y'all. I say be still, I mean, put the cell phone away, Put the laptop away, get away, go walk the dog, go talk to you.

I've done a lot of talking to myself. My next door neighbors think I'm probably fucking crazy. I was like, does that dude mutter into himself again? But what I did is I really want to be intentional. And like I said, everything I preach is I eat my own dog food. Like everything I talk about on social media, I do. Like that I talk about the job sequence. So I did journaling and I did a lot of getting away from the noise and that helped a ton. So in your journaling, did you find that a lot of the things that were your passions were the things that you had kind of like put off as a side hustle, but those were the things that like really you feel fulfilled and happy.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's one thing that I hear a lot from people when I talk to them about their careers is that they tell me about all these things, all these skills, and then they'll start talking and they'll say, oh, yeah, but that's just a passion project. It's like, you know, that could be a career, right? Yeah. So, so good. So good. It's so true. I think in today's world, and listen, I mean, I, you know, I'm a big fan of content and communicating at scale across social media, but like there are people that have created careers off of being passionate about Beanie Babies. And like it's a thing now.

Like there, there is enough out there now people want to be in community with others and have some more passions, but people need a leader. People just need a leader. People need a facilitator. And if you have a passion, like you said, Ashton, that I had like outside of work, and you feel like you can't implement that at work, I'm blessed, right? I'm very, very blessed that Vaco allowed me to implement what I love to do at work. But if you don't have that option, it may be scary, but go ahead and start it on the side and build it up and then leave. Yeah.

Or sometimes where you work and may realize they need that, and then create a role for you where you're doing just that. So you never know. But the point is do it. Yes. I talk all the time, go be fearless. All right, Ashton, as you wrap up here, this was so good. We gotta do it again. You're phenomenal. I'd love you to do that. I'm like, I enjoyed myself. We may have to do this again. Yeah, we may have to do it again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of rapid fire here. So it was my birthday kind of two weeks ago. So I'm still kind of on this cake.

I'm people like it. Oh yeah, just see your post. Yeah, yeah. Favorite cake, go. Ooh. Are you a cake person? That's the first. I am. Okay. No, I am. I am. I'm going to go with it. Some people like don't eat cakes, and those people are just weird, so it's fine. No, it was just too many cakes that went through my head all at once. Well, it's the first one, though. What was the first one? Red Velvet Cheesecake. Oh, that's my wife's favorite. I love that. I love that. That's a nice one. I would leave you right there. Second thing, Tech Trends. tech, just general things that you're interested in right now that maybe other people should be interested as well?

Augmented reality. I think everybody's so focused on AI and VR that people, I don't see a whole lot of people that are focused on like augmented reality design and experiences and I think that can be so much cooler and have so much more access to so many different people on socio economic levels than VR and AI. So yes, augmented reality. Boom. Love that. Final thing. This show is called guidance counselor 2.0 because we had guidance counselor at middle school, high school and college. And now as adults, we don't really have them. Um, what would be your biggest piece of career advice? Obviously, uh, we've talked a lot, but what would be your biggest piece of career advice to your younger self?

Ooh, um, do it. Try it. Don't be afraid and figure it out. just figure it out. Make it do you figure it out. You got this. Yep. Awesome. Well, y'all, thanks again for hanging out with say, please go connect with Ashton. Obviously, as you can tell, she is an amazing individual. And so I will see y'all tomorrow. I have my guy James Quick on tomorrow. He also is a render speaker. So excited to have him on the show tomorrow. And then Thursday, talking about content, unicorn finders, my other podcast, where we highlight companies doing really cool shit you probably haven't heard of. We are bringing on a software engineer that developed a platform to, basically a user UGC, user-generated content, basically to match up influencers with companies.

I know there's a lot of platforms out there so I'm really interested to hear about this one and kind of what sets itself apart. So anyways, busy week. Thanks y'all, Ashton, you're wonderful. Stay on real quick so I can say bye to you. But y'all have a good one. We'll see y'all tomorrow, bye. Hey, you did it. You listened to an entire episode and I am very grateful because you know why? There's a lot of podcasts out there. There's a lot of episodes and I myself rarely finish an entire episode. So I appreciate you so, so much for listening. Quick reminder, please rate and review this podcast in the App Store.

I want this to be discoverable to others and the only way that happens is if you take the time right now and rate and review it. Please, like, right now. Unless you're driving, then don't do it. So thank you again if you need to reach out to me, Taylor at Vaco.com or at Tdastin on all social media handles and I hope you have a fantastic day.