A New Job And A Move To NYC ??

LinkedIn doesn't like GIF's or images for some reason so here's the link to see the original post in all of it's glory ? https://open.substack.com/pub/stevensomething/p/growth-hacking-my-way-to-the-big

From New Zealand to New York, I’m creating a cosy Field Guide of my journey as I move across the globe in 90 days and attempt to land my dream job!

In 90 days there are going to be two big changes in my life.?

First, we’re moving halfway across the world, from New Zealand to New York!?

We’ve booked the flights, begun packing up the house, and started to say goodbye to our 100+ plants ??

Second, after a round of redundancies and the most rejuvenating month off of my life, I’m starting my journey looking for my next role!

I wanted to approach this journey more intentionally than the last.

The first professional job after I sold my inbound marketing agency back in 2019 was as the Head of Growth at Runn. I wasn’t actively looking for a job, but I stumbled on a super engaging post in a community group and knew I had to reach out.

My next job was a shoulder tap into the climate industry as the Marketing Director.

While both jobs were fantastic, I learned a lot about how I like to show up, at what stages of growth I enjoy the most, and I also realized that I’m excited to have a job where there’s an in-person element!

Embracing Authenticity and Creativity ??

After starting my passion project plant shop, I had so much fun branding, experimenting, and playing around with bringing my personality and values into a product.

We had cosy jazz music in the background, scented candles, fun social media content, custom boxes and more! People resonated with it, and it was incredibly fulfilling.?

That has inspired me more than ever to bring that same level of authenticity and creativity into my next role!

As I ponder questions like, "What is the story they'll tell each other at the company when they see my application?" and "How do I want to show up in this new role?", I find myself envisioning a future that excites me.

I want to find the one.?

The role that speaks to me, calls my name in the middle of the night, and makes butterflies flutter in my tummy ??

Which means there are probably a lot fewer of these fish in the sea.

So I wanted to document my journey of finding my next amazing role.

And I wanted to share what I’m experimenting with to share my story and experience in a way that (hopefully) makes me stand out compared to the other awesome people around me.

Defining Goals and Values ?

One thing I want to do before I start to look for a role is get a clear sense of exactly what I’m after. I find it’s harder to do this when you’re in the thick of things, and it’s easier to sway towards things that are coming your way.

So getting clear on my values & what I’m envisioning before I started looking was a fun first step. After some reflection, here are some of the key values that guide me:

• Creating magic & awe
• Celebration & delight
• Ethical growth
• Experimentation & collaboration

And here’s what I’m after:

I envision being part of a wholesome, supportive, thoughtful, and diverse team. My goal is to be earning $180k+ and being appreciated and celebrated, with a team local to NYC. I want to push the boundaries of growth and discover new forefronts. I want the company to be known for our innovating ways of growing. And I want to share my journey and embrace a personal brand approach to connecting with the community in NYC is crucial.

I aim to show up with vibrancy and richness as I navigate the juicy and uncomfy moments of life.

A Note On Authenticity ??

In my first year of running my marketing agency, I thought that the more professional we pretended to be, and the larger we seemed, the more trustworthy we would appear and hence the more clients we would attract.

In reality, it was just me and my co-founder, but the website we built would have rivalled any management consulting company.

I was so excited to launch, spending all last week designing and building, and what happened next was a little shocking—no one got in touch.

Whether people sensed it was inauthentic, or that this professionally fancy-looking website didn’t match our target audience at the time (small business owners), it didn’t work.

We then did a full 180.

I changed the banner image to be us two.

I mentioned we were a team of two, I linked our LinkedIns, we shared about our passions, likes, dislikes, and essentially created a website that resonated with us (and hopefully people who like us).

The results were day and night.

Being authentically ourselves worked. The clients we attracted we loved working with. The sales calls turned into catch-ups, and the whole process was a delight.

Watching Ru Paul recently, he mentioned that it’s the cracks, not the perfection, that allow people to truly fall in love with you.

So here’s to showing our full selves!?

Celebrating My Full Self ??

So as part of me showing my full self, there are two things I experimented with this week to dive deeper into bringing my full self online.

Creating A Personal Brand Doc

First, I got a designer to help me my personal brand & vibe to life.

She went through my inspo board, created a colour scheme, built out a branding doc that then turned into this!

Below is a screenshot of the homepage, and you can check out the website here!

https://www.stevenmale.com

Check out the person who helped bring this to life here.

Building an AI Agent To Help With CVs ??

I also wanted to show that I still enjoy learning new tools. So using Relevance, I built an AI tool to help streamline my application process.?

Here’s how the tool works:

?? You simply enter the link to the job as well as your CV.

?? The tool looks through the job, then jumps on LinkedIn to find additional context about the company to see if there’s anything else it can use to improve the suggestion.

?? It then searches through its memory bank and tries to see if there’s any additional relevant industry knowledge that can support your application further.

?? Finally, it goes through the information on your CV as well as your personal LinkedIn profile and provides actionable suggestions on how you can tailor your application to improve your chances!

Results So Far ??

So far I’ve applied for 9 jobs, and have had 2 rejections!

Early in the journey but already learning so much!

What’s Next????

Next week I’m refining my website, CV, and cover letter even more.

I want to get feedback from someone who hires people like me, so I’m getting two friends, including one who runs a company, to take a look and give me feedback from their perspective!

What would they look to see, what do they love, and what’s missing for them?

Then, I’m building my next AI agent! By the end of this journey, my goal is to have a range of agents that I can use to both showcase my skillset, but also bring into my new job to help me deliver even more impact in the first 90-days!

See you next week!