Flow

 

Wow! I’m blessed that had a great year last year both with my business and personally.  The business had a good start to 2023. Now I’m sitting in a slump – my flow is gone. I tried to work harder, create new approaches to recruiting and just push hard. Still no flow. Getting out on the boat over the weekend was relaxing but still no flow. So, all the trying to attempt to create flow- it’s not working.  My solution - I’m going on vacation. I feel like I should still be slugging away at work, but the Universe seems to be telling me it’s time for me to take time off and chill. So, off I go to an island for some rest and relaxation. I’ve found real downtime energizes me. 

Looking forward to reenergizing and coming back to a great work flow! 

Grace

 

So, life moves on and things get back to normal.  It’s odd to say but they eventually do. Works is back to normal, daily life - pretty normal. 

I’ve learned these last few years to give lots of grace to myself and others. As we head into the holiday season remember to give grace. It doesn’t take much to be kind and gracious to others. 

Pass on the grace and have a very happy Thanksgiving.

Salary Swing Dance

 

So, California passes a law stating as an employer you can’t ask salary history which is supposed to protect the future employees from losing money and unfair discriminating practices. From my understanding the company can ask salary expectations. Most people believe that it’s against the law for me to ask salary expectations.   I’m a recruiter working with multiple companies and a variety of salary ranges. I’m also not the employer.  The CA rule has been making difficult for recruiting due to this misunderstanding. 

It’s like this weird salary dance between candidates and me.  I’m the in between – the person negotiating to make both parties happy, the company and the candidate with the offer. Usually, I’ll get a range but occasionally the person won’t give me one which makes it awkward to work with them because every time I present a job it’s another guessing game and we're dancing around the salary. It's exhausting. 

Hey candidates, take advantage of a recruiter looking to negotiate a great salary for you – give them your expectations for salary! Keep it easy! They will get you more money.  It’s all in the same realm of questions we ask about, commuting, remote work, healthcare, vacation, salary etc. For a recruiter is just another item on our check list to make sure you take the offer – if you get an offer.

 

This last year has been a healing year and also a year of lots of firsts. I have an exciting new first –

Another new adventure!!

#Coaching invite! I missed mentoring so I just joined up with my friend @Ilyana Lily Salem’s business – Career Bright as a Career Advisor.

@Career Bright is a career accelerator brought to you by a team of experts dedicated to bringing insights to the path of job seekers based on their strengths.

I look forward to joining Lily who is excellent at resume writing, interview coaching. I will be heading up the mentoring/coaching for decision making as I LOVE to coach for career growth, pivot, or a new start. I excel at figuring out what you want to do so you _love_ your work.

Go to the website to see a list of services! We do amazing work with recent grads struggling in this Covid environment as well as professionals at all levels. Lately parents have been our best client by buying packages for their young professionals taking on extraordinary job seeker challenges.

Oh, and yes, I’m still recruiting with Dave – this extra bonus is just something I love to do and when the opportunity opened up I said YES!! https://careerbrightguide.com/

#careerbrightgu
ide #careerservices #coaching #heidimcleod #justsayyes #yes

How are you doing?

 

So, I get asked often, “How are you doing?” It’s a loaded question and one I have a standard answer for. I say, “We have good days and bad.” 

Grief is complicated. It’s made for some very awkward moments with our candidates and clients.  It’s also made for some amazing moments of kindness and offers of prayers.  So, we are doing the best we can. Our days can be sad, awkward, bittersweet, happy and sometimes joyous. 

Some people ask how they can help? My answer to that, “Support our businesses.”  Hire us for recruiting, - we’re really good at it! Call me when you need new clothes and I’ll do a pop-up shop at your house or an online fashion show! Hire my son for his mowing service – he’s such a hard worker.  Keeping us busy and productive is one of our corner stones to getting through our grief.

Faith, Hope, Work and Family.

Have a great three-day weekend with your family!

My blog over the years has been a combination of my personal life and my work life. They’ve always collided. In February they blew up. My husband and business partner, Scott, passed away. It was sudden, unexpected, and fast.  He left a hole in our hearts and at our firm. He’s been greatly missed.  

Right after Scott died, we went into this Covid-19 madness and lock down. There was no celebration of his life with family flying in – everything got cancelled.   I have teens in mourning unable to do normal stuff, like going to school or a movie or a theme park. All this, on top of us grieving their dad’s death it’s too much. Daily I hear from the media and read in the paper we’re all in this together.

We’re not.

We all might be in one big storm but the ships we are sailing in are all different. Our ship is running but very battered. Why bring this up? Even as we are opening up the economy for business, I’m seeing, and hearing people get angry. Store clerks lashing out, people are yelling at each other about masks and standing too close, people giving total strangers unsolicited Covid-19 medical advice -  it’s gotten nutty. I’d like to remind everyone that some of us have had more than a Covid-19 strike. 

Be kind. Be patient. Be forgiving. As my Dad always says, “This too shall pass.”

Thanksgiving Tips to make your day easier!

Thanksgiving tips for a great dinner!

A week before –

Plan your menu and work out what time to start the turkey, stuffing, veggies etc. I work backward from the time I want dinner to be served. A schedule for the food prep and cooking makes the day easy!

Wash all your serving dishes and glasses if they’ve been in storage.

Buy everything except for fresh produce. Our new town sells out of specialty items quickly, so we learned to plan ahead instead of scrambling for last minute substitutions.

Two days before –

Thaw the turkey in the refrigerator if you bought a frozen one. We usually buy a frozen 

Butterball turkey because they always taste great.

Empty your ice machine ice into Ziplock bags. The machine will make more ice over the next few days and you shouldn’t need to buy ice.

Make the cranberry sauce  and pies.  

Day before –

Buy all vegetables and any last-minute fresh ingredients you need.

Brine your turkey – it makes the best turkey!

Make your mashed potatoes. They can be warmed up in a Crockpot on Thanksgiving day. Start them Thanksgiving a.m. on warm they’ll be good to go by dinner.  They taste the same and it’s less work on a hectic day.

Make all dips for appetizers and cut up all your veggies. Go light on appetizers so they eat the turkey! 

Set the table and put out all the serving dishes and utensils you’ll be using. Label the serving dishes so when guests help, they know what food to put in what bowl/platter.

If you are lucky to have an extra refrigerator use it to start cooling down all your beverages.

With enough forward planning it makes Thanksgiving Day easy and relaxing!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours.