Transcript
Anthony Codispoti (00:00)
Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Cotaspodi and today's guest left one of the most prestigious jobs in corporate America to work in a warehouse packing groceries until midnight.
She walked away from a plush Pepsi office with a sculpture garden and a secretary at the door to join a startup where water dripped on her head. That choice set a pattern she has repeated ever since. She has chased chaos into some of the most turbulent corners of business, from a grocery delivery pioneer that collapsed in the dot-com bust to an energy drink company entangled in one of sports history's most complicated legacies.
Maigread Eichten (00:28)
You
Anthony Codispoti (00:52)
cannabis company she ran, even though she doesn't personally use the product. Each chapter ends and a new one begins. Her name is Mairead Iqdadi, and she is the founder and CEO of Career Expedite, a concierge career coaching firm that gets college graduates hired. Her coaches are former executives and operators, not resume writers. And she has built a 99 % success rate working one-on-one with young people
navigating the hardest job market in a generation. She spent 11 years at PepsiCo, built a new business division that generated over $450 million in revenue and has led companies across food and beverage, health and technology. She built a career on betting that the hard road was worth it. This conversation today is for anyone wondering whether they should make that same bet. But before we get into all that good stuff,
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All right, back to our guest today, founder of Career Expedite, Mairead Eichten. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.
Maigread Eichten (02:56)
Well, thanks for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.
Anthony Codispoti (02:59)
So, I gotta call out your name to start with, because it took me a while to wrap my arms around it. ⁓ There's a silent G in the middle of this. It looks like my greed, but it's pronounced Maigread-de with a D on the end of it. Now, I wanna go through this because there are gonna be folks who wanna reach out to you and they're gonna wanna know how to pronounce your name correctly, but tell us a little bit of the etymology. What's the story behind your name?
Maigread Eichten (03:02)
Hahaha
Yeah.
my God.
So I'm the oldest of six kids and ⁓ my parents named all the other kids very typical names Chuck, David, Bob. But there was a Catholic nun in my family's circle of friends that they really liked. So I was named after this Catholic nun. As a teenager, I wasn't so thrilled about this. Seemed like very, big aspiration to be so young and to be
named after a Catholic nun. I found out later though that she was my grandfather's buddy. What does that mean? That means she hung around in his Cadillac drinking whiskey and going around all of his businesses. So it has quite a storied past. ⁓ I think I'm the only one on Google so I should be really easy to find.
Anthony Codispoti (04:17)
M-A-I-G-R-E-A-D pronounce Maigread. ⁓ Okay, absolutely. So let's stay on the name stuff for just a second. And then I promise we'll move away from it. But you started your career at Pepsi with the last name at the time of Martinez. So that must have been your married name. And so you would walk into these sales meetings where I understand people were expecting something very different.
Maigread Eichten (04:19)
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah.
⁓ Yes, ⁓ actually I was in marketing and then I was in sales so I calling directly on customers. I would typically walk in the room and they would ask who I was. Typically they were looking for a man, Maigread it's not clear, ⁓ you know, male or female, but certainly they were looking for Martinez, somebody that looked very, very different than me. And back then there wasn't a lot of women in sales. I was the only women executive in sales at Pepsi at the time.
So I was just so unusual and you can guess that was very difficult at first. But one of the greatest things I learned out of that is you gotta lean into who you are. I can't change it. Can't change my name. I wanted to be Elizabeth. That didn't happen. At the time I was Martina's, I look like this. And I think leaning into who you are, especially as we talk more about how you are unique in the workplace,
is a really important thing and can be really hard and scary.
Anthony Codispoti (05:45)
Yeah. So
for those folks who are listening to the audio vision, Mairead has fair skin and blonde hair. So not what everybody's expecting when they see the name Martinez. So let's get into some of the work that you did, because as we referenced in the intro at Pepsi, you built a brand new business division that ends up generating over $450 million a year in revenue. Talk us through that.
Maigread Eichten (05:56)
Correct.
Yeah, so I came to Pepsi from business school in a marketing class, which is very traditional at the for Pepsi Cola. Marketing is the path. Everyone wants to be in marketing. I did that for a couple years and I had to admit to myself that I was not great at marketing. There were people in my peer group who were outstanding and went on to be CMOs at some of the largest companies in the country. So I got moved to sales, which at the time I was quite
depressed about. But what I found was sales is a perfect match for me and it's been very valuable in my career. What was going on at the time was Pepsi had just moved to expand their portfolio out of soft drinks into tea, water and juice and resealable bottles had just come out. Those two trends were very interesting to me because that made possible for consumers and for Pepsi Cola.
to put new products in different sort of outlets. So those of you on the phone or listening to us, you don't remember this, but back in the day, you could get soft drinks at the grocery store and a restaurant. There was no convenience stores, there was no Home Depot, there was no mall, there was not like it is now where beverages are everywhere. And that was the crux of the new business because every single one of those placements was a new sale.
for the Pepsi Cola Company and incredibly profitable. Timing.
Anthony Codispoti (07:44)
And so
your new division was basically going out and selling into these different channels and selling these new products.
Maigread Eichten (07:49)
Yes, yes, yes. And
sometimes there was a marketing partnership, Blockbuster at the time, that was the video store where you could go get your video. Again, a fantastic opportunity for Pepsi placement because you were there getting your entertainment for the evening. But yeah, so my marketing background came in to be very helpful because I understood the target consumer and what was happening in the market.
but it was that sales experience that really made a big difference. ⁓ Anytime you can be on the revenue side of a business, you will do really well in your career. You're generating money for the company, and that's what that was. most of it was timing. It was timing.
Anthony Codispoti (08:38)
But you were initially depressed to be moving into this role because the cool kids were all doing the marketing and it felt like maybe you weren't cool anymore.
Maigread Eichten (08:41)
my god.
so that's so perfectly said. Pepsi at the time was doing ⁓ entertainment marketing with big celebrities. ⁓ One of my peers went on the Michael Jackson tour around the world. Somebody else was working with Madonna. Yeah, I this was this was not a popular assignment. And it but it turned out really, really well for me. And I loved it. I loved it.
Anthony Codispoti (09:17)
So what was the thing that we mentioned in the intro, the energy drink company entangled in one of sports history's most complicated legacies?
Maigread Eichten (09:22)
⁓ boy.
So I was at a tech company, ⁓ which was not the best fit for me. And somebody that I knew mentioned a energy drink company down in ⁓ a beach town called Galita. It's right next to Santa Barbara. So I went down there to talk to the founder and he's told me about how they had this healthy energy drink with a supplement ingredient.
And he casually mentioned that on the board and a major investor was Lance Armstrong. Now, Lance at the time had retired the first time and was pretty much just being a socialite, but very, very, very popular with the cycling community. And so not only was he a board member and an investor, I went down to this little beach town. Literally, we were on the beach.
couple people in a building and became the CEO of that company. And Lance then fortuitously, nothing to do with us, decided to ⁓ come back. So that's when he launched his comeback tour. At the same time, we were starting to grow this healthy energy drink. So Lance, fantastic. This was the early days of Red Bull. Energy drinks were incredibly popular and there was nothing on the market like ours, which was in this
healthy space.
Anthony Codispoti (10:54)
And what was the brand?
Maigread Eichten (10:56)
The brand was called FRS. When I got there, ⁓ it was called FRS, an antioxidant health drink. I did not know what that meant. I'm embarrassed to say that. I had no idea it was an antioxidant. This was back when this was way less familiar. And I just really struggled with...
Anthony Codispoti (11:09)
Okay, you didn't know what antioxidants were or?
Maigread Eichten (11:21)
What am I going to call this thing because I don't know what it is. There's going to be somebody else on a grocery store that's going look at say, I don't know what that means. And healthy people understand that healthy energy tied into the energy market and the growth we were seeing with Red Bull and the like. And it was a super unique positioning. And the brand took off, took off timing plus Lance.
Anthony Codispoti (11:46)
And where was
this in your career history, right? We were at Pepsi. When did this come in?
Maigread Eichten (11:53)
Yeah,
so that's a good question. So I had gone from Pepsi to Webvan, which was an online grocer, a brief stint there that was a dot com casualty. I was a CMO there. And then I went to a tech company called VeriSign and I had the opportunity to run a very small business. At the time it was a million dollars in revenue. The idea was to sell global brands ⁓ domain names internationally.
uh... and again this was as the internet was just just really picking up speed and kind of in a broad sort of way i did that for a couple years let's see i was at VeriSign 2000 i started in 2000 i went through the dot com crash there uh... great learning and i left there in in uh... 2007 to do the energy drink
Anthony Codispoti (12:29)
What's the time? What was the year?
Okay.
Okay. So what was it that took you out of the comfortable job at Pepsi and into this internet startup of Webvan?
Maigread Eichten (12:50)
Ha
I gotta tell ya, that was a crazy decision that my entire family and friends looked at me and said, you're nuts. I had just become a VP at Pepsi, which is a phenomenal level. I had a office with a couch in it. I always think about that, a couch in it. It was big. And I could look out at the beautiful gardens outside. I mean, it was...
and I was head of sales at the East Coast. I had tickets to every single thing you could possibly think of. It was a great job. And Pepsi is a phenomenal company to work for. They really focused on employees and developing employees. But I got a call from a headhunter about this online grocery store ⁓ in San Francisco, which is where I'm from. So that was attractive to me. And I flew out to see him.
He wanted me to run a distribution center. And I got there and I said, okay, well, I'm not doing that and I would be horrible at that. But I said, you really need to think about who's the point person with all these big brands. Because if you have an online grocer, Pepsi, Kraft, General Mills, they're gonna want their products front and center on your online store and you could make slotting fees and you could make money off.
Well, the guy running it at the time was a guy from Goldman Sachs. He had no idea what I was talking about and why that would be, they hadn't even thought about that. And so I pitched him on, I think this is millions of dollars. I think you should hire me to do this and kind of created my own job. And that just seemed super fun.
Anthony Codispoti (14:42)
And it.
You know, and for those folks who don't remember, you know, or weren't around for the early days of the internet, like Webvan was a big deal and then a big bust. And as you look back at it now, it occurs to me that it was just a little too early. Do you see it that way or were there other structural problems there?
Maigread Eichten (15:02)
So
that's structural problems. here's what, because from that biz dev job I went on to be the CMO, consumers loved online grocer. And that's why you knew that it was eventually going to happen. ⁓ where WebVen went wrong was they had an automated warehouse. Now today an automated warehouse is a commonplace thing, but back then,
was way too early and it used to break down. So we'd get a call at nine o'clock at night that we all needed to go out to the distribution center and pack groceries. And we would pack groceries all night long. And that was at least once or twice a week. Which at the time we thought that was just a load of fun. But that was not a sustainable business model. But the core consumer idea was very, very strong. Very strong.
Anthony Codispoti (16:00)
And so why do you think it didn't work at that time? Was it that the robotics, the automation was not ready yet or were there other factors?
Maigread Eichten (16:07)
So
grocery margins are very slim. And so the cost of the distribution center was one challenge. The robotics were not there to get the cost out. But then the other thing is direct store delivery, delivering things to your doorstep that Amazon does so successfully, that is also a big cost. And the reason Amazon does it so successfully is they're delivering all this stuff to you. And that's where Webvan wanted to go. Louis Sporter's, the
guy who started it, that was his vision. And again, timing in the market, as I learned ⁓ at Pepsi with the new business thing, what I saw at Webvan, timing is timing. And sometimes you're right on it and you will be a success. You still have to work hard, of course. And other times, it's not the right time. And Webvan, so sad, not the right time.
Anthony Codispoti (17:01)
Yeah. So you went on to be a CEO. I'm going to use the word interim. Tell me if that's right or wrong at multiple different places. I've got a kombucha company, a chocolate company. ⁓ What else am I missing here?
Maigread Eichten (17:17)
⁓ I did a protein drink. I so after the healthy energy company, which we'll talk a little bit about how that how I ended there. And I was the person that investors called when the founder was faltering and they needed somebody to come in to sort of assess what do we got here?
And sometimes the answer was, wow, you have a phenomenal product and you just need infrastructure. I did a toy company for a founder. They needed an inventory system. They needed a financial model, CFO, et cetera. And other times, like the Kombucha company, there was actually a product quality issue that could not be fixed. And unfortunately, in that case, we to shut the company down. So that's really what I, I sort of a firefighter.
Um, it was super interesting, met lots of interesting people and really learn that some things are fixable and some things are not. And recognizing the difference is hard because I'm very positive, like all entrepreneurs, very enthusiastic, sort of thinking you can always figure it out, but sometimes you cannot. And there's a walk away point and investors like knowing that before they, what do they call it?
money good money after bad
Anthony Codispoti (18:39)
Okay, so let's come back to FRS, the energy drink company. How did that end up playing out?
Maigread Eichten (18:47)
So when I got there, we were about a million dollars in revenue all online. ⁓ And we were really selling supplements. And with my background, what we did, know, built out the team, actually moved the company to San Francisco and started to build out the retail business. We got into Safeway. We got into ⁓ Kroger. We were really having success. And again, we were also riding the coattails of
Lance. The product was used by road cyclists but also by mountain bikers. We had a huge community there and mountain biking again was just really starting to get super mainstream. ⁓ All these factors are critical because again timing timing timing and we went from a million dollars and then the next year was eight the next year was 30 and we were on track for about 45 which in
consumer land is very unusual. In beverages, it's really unusual. Beverages grow ⁓ fairly slowly. And this again was Lance was back in the news. Lance was competing. He was doing really well. And then I was interviewed by the New York Times. I remember it was a Sunday edition. I was super proud of this, very excited.
you know, mostly mostly so I could send that article to my dad and my kids. And that was Sunday. And next Monday I walked in and the chairman of the board was sitting in my office and I was like, what are you doing here? Like, what are we doing? We don't And he closed the door and he fired.
Yeah.
Anthony Codispoti (20:33)
because of all this incredible growth. ⁓
What was the reason? What did this article say?
Maigread Eichten (20:38)
Well,
well, the article had really nothing to do with it. So this is a good learning. So a very common thing in venture capital land, I had raised $25 million from a very prominent VC in the Valley. And when you do that, you take a lot of money and they see initial success. I was a first time CEO.
They want to come in and bring in somebody that's more experienced that they feel can really take this thing to the next level. And so it's pretty classic. I of course thought it was completely personal. What had I not done? But you know, in hindsight, I look at those facts and that investor to his credit years later called me and actually apologized and said, Hey, we, that was a mistake. the new person did not work out, which is a whole nother story.
⁓ But at the time, I mean, you can imagine it was absolutely devastating. I had never had that sort of failure in my career. And of course, then you start going through your mental math of, well, what did I not do? I didn't do this or I didn't do that or I didn't do this. ⁓
Anthony Codispoti (21:52)
But it doesn't sound like it was performance related. It was just looking at our resume and this is our first time kind of being at this level. I think we need somebody else, right?
Maigread Eichten (22:05)
I mean, again, in hindsight, I can see that so clearly. mean, we were being approached, I was courting both Pepsi and Coke to buy us. I mean, the company was on a tear. Lance was on a tear, the product was on a tear, and if you're an investor, a professional investor, you want to optimize that outcome. So now it's very easy to understand. And at the time, they brought in somebody and they wanted me to stay and work with this person.
the new CEO definitely did not want me around is also very common. But it was tough, it was really tough.
Anthony Codispoti (22:48)
How'd you get through it?
Maigread Eichten (22:52)
So I was really mad. But I, at the time, was a single mom. And I had an older son who was trying to figure out who's going to go to college. was a senior. And I had twins that were about to enter high school. And I'd been commuting and traveling and doing all this press. And it was really hard to spend time with them.
In a weird way, this worked out great because now I started doing some consulting and I was around and I was around when they came home from school and I really got to spend time with my kids. And again, with hindsight, it's the best thing that ever happened to me. The best thing. ⁓ I had four years where I was at home a lot. I was gone some, but not with the same sort of stress. So.
It was really, I have a great family and that really, but I will tell you, and I have so much empathy for people who publicly get fired because it's public if you're doing a lot of press. And you know, I try never to judge. You never know the situation of what happened in most cases.
Anthony Codispoti (24:08)
And so in your situation, were, I don't know, you getting side glances from people or folks calling or emailing or, you know, were you hearing sort of rumblings about people making up their own conclusions on what happened?
Maigread Eichten (24:22)
Yeah, I mean, you know, there were some people, ⁓ there were some people that I counted on as mentors and friends who definitely were like, well, you must have done something wrong, what happened? And then there were other people who were like, hey, I know her and, know, but it's a good, it's a kind of good thing to go through. I feel like that was one of the most defining things in my career.
being able to stand on my own two feet and say, hey, I know I did great work here. I'm confident in, and people can choose to think whatever they want. And also I lost all desire to ever be in the press, which I also think is just a healthy thing. That's just a, that's a losing game. It's a losing, it's a very losing, losing game. And yeah, so, but man.
Anthony Codispoti (25:16)
That's a gut punch, especially when the performance had really been there. So ⁓ one company we briefly mentioned, but didn't get into details, you were at a cannabis company for a bit. And it was the time that you were coming out of there where you had this moment of asking yourself what it was about running a company that you really loved. Tell me about that thought process, what it got you to.
Maigread Eichten (25:24)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so I had an opportunity to run a cannabis company and I got to build my own team. was the same sort of thing. Investors saying, hey, what should we do here? And I inherited, as you always do, a lot of young people in this company. Cannabis is a market that attracts a lot of young people and not the sort of people that come from Pepsi necessarily, especially at the more junior levels. These were folks that went to community college in my company.
Some of them went to college, a lot of them were going to college at night, but a lot of young people. And what I really thought about after that was that's what I liked, helping them along on their career. Because some people have mentors, but a lot of us don't. And if you have mentors, your whole career trajectory, I think, is enhanced and it's more fun. Because it's somebody that can both support you and give you confidence.
but also give you the hard truth of, this is where you need to change. And I just really enjoyed all those young people and other people in the company. And that's what I decided I really wanted to focus my time and attention on.
Anthony Codispoti (26:55)
And so that is how the idea for Career Expedite was birthed. Yes.
Maigread Eichten (27:00)
Yeah,
yeah, I mean, and also, you know, I'm was asked pretty regularly by people I knew, hey, I am looking at this new job in a different city. What do you think? How can I maximize my salary negotiations? ⁓ I'm thinking about changing functions. I want to go from marketing to sales. How do I do that? I'm in a I'm on Wall Street and I'm at a
very high-end financial firm, I wanted to make a move, give me some advice on how to do that. So it started informally, just working with folks and then their friends and their friends. And then a couple years ago, I decided to really formalize it and okay, what's my process and how is it that I'm gonna do this? And specifically, can I get people jobs? Because at the end of the day, that's what people want. Advice is great, but the people that are really serious are, I need a job.
And so I sort of doubled down on that and experimented with a bunch of things. And now a couple of years later, I feel, you know, I know how to get people jobs. I have a system.
Anthony Codispoti (28:10)
And so
who is it that you mostly work with? Is it folks that are in the workforce and they're trying to move up or they've been laid off or is it folks right out of college?
Maigread Eichten (28:23)
So I started and I do work generally, as I would say across the entire spectrum. But I focused the last 18 months on a group of people that I feel the most empathy for. that's ⁓ clients that have recently graduated from college or about to graduate. The market is tougher than it's been in decades. This is also a cohort that for the most part during COVID was sitting at home. They weren't in high school.
you know, they weren't in person in their high school. So they went through that. Then they struggled to get into college. Getting into college is, you know, exponentially more difficult than it used to be. And now they're coming out in the market for, for entry level positions is, I mean, it's horrid. It's really rough. mean that the colleges are, you know, they do, they do surveys of how many of their grads don't get jobs.
There are little dubious stats because that includes I went to Starbucks, right? Well, I'm a marketing major, but I'm working at Starbucks. So, and so that number, at minimum, it's 30 % of the graduating class last year didn't get a job in their field. And my gut, will be higher, unfortunately, this year.
Anthony Codispoti (29:43)
Why do you think that is? Is it the economy is in a slump? Is it AI? Is it something else?
Maigread Eichten (29:48)
Mmm.
So my, spend way too much time looking at and following economists and really trying to dig into this, right? Because this helps me figure out how to help folks. I think the uncertainty of the last couple of years is causing CEOs and business leaders to hold on hiring. And part of that uncertainty is definitely AI, right? Can AI do this job, right? But I think that's a factor. I don't think that's the driver.
I think it's the uncertainty and having run a business, if I, you know, I went through the downturn in 08, what did I do? I cut costs. I could not see the future. If you can't see the future, you are not going to hire an entry level person. You are not because that means you see growth and you see potential and you know which way to go. And I remember 08 being, I'm going to hunker down and we were doing great.
The recession really didn't hit our energy drink business that hard, but I still cut back because I didn't know. And so that's what I think is happening in the marketplace. We need stability. And once we have stability, I think the market will open up a little bit, but that has not been the case for a good year and a half, two years. And then there's all the AI uncertainty, of course, and that's hitting certain functions harder than other functions.
Anthony Codispoti (31:19)
So I hear a lot of this uncertainty talk as well. And I've heard it over the last couple of years, as long as I've been doing the show. It's a common refrain, you know, whether you want to call it political or economic tariffs, ⁓ interest rates, ⁓ inflation. Yeah, people don't know which way things are heading. And so they're just kind of in hunker down mode or just, you know, we're just going to sort of maintain for now.
Maigread Eichten (31:46)
Yep, yep,
yep.
Anthony Codispoti (31:49)
And so you're talking about AI and I think what's interesting is that in your business, Career Expedite, you tried the AI route. ⁓ Tell us about that and why you eventually moved away from it.
Maigread Eichten (31:58)
I do.
Yeah, so I ⁓ had the opportunity to partner with somebody who was very, very deep in AI. And his thesis of ⁓ the business was, we're going to optimize everything in the job search using AI, and that's going to get folks jobs. So what does that mean? That means we're going to use AI to optimize your resume. We're going to use AI to optimize your LinkedIn. We're going to use AI to help you with your interview skills, and so on and so forth.
⁓ What I saw in the results though was, well AI has a role and it can be helpful. The process of finding a job, yes AI is gonna, system is probably gonna scan your resume, for sure. ⁓ But at the end of the day, humans hire humans, period. Somebody, I can think of any time where a human at some point isn't gonna say, I want to hire,
Anthony and that is an interpersonal interaction that AI at least today in my opinion cannot solve and that's really building your story building the ability for you to speak and Resonate with that human when you get to that point to me That's the skill and then of course the networking that you're gonna need Again, this is an old old-fashioned thing
People get jobs through people they know. That has not changed. That is still the same. We all hire people from referral if we can because that's a trusted relationship.
Anthony Codispoti (33:45)
So we talked in the intro, Maigread about a 99 % success rate, which is as pretty close to perfect as you can get. What is it that you're doing in your process that makes this so effective? What does this client engagement look like? Talk us through it.
Maigread Eichten (34:01)
Mm-hmm.
⁓ And I want to start with, you know, that is why I do this. I want to get people jobs. I charge money because, you know, we value things more if we pay. But that is important to me that I can be effective. And what I have found is the first step is this is all interpersonal. It's one on one. So I'm working with a client. The first thing I need to figure out is
I need to establish trust that they're going to listen to me and take action. By the way, that's super hard. I have a triathlon coach. She tells me all the time to take a rest day and every day, every time I get a rest day, I start thinking, I don't really want to take a rest day. Why should I listen to her? We all do this. We all do this. So the trust is step one. Then I got to figure out what is the problem. If you're not getting a job,
And most folks are coming to me after they've gone off and tried to do this themselves. They've worked with their college career center. They've worked with people in their life. It hasn't worked. So I got to figure out what's the core issue. And then once I figure that out, then we can hone in on actually improving whatever that challenge is. And there is a process because there's things in the job search you need to do.
you need to establish your resume and then you got to get your LinkedIn in good order and you know work on interviews and so on and so forth. But just like being a CEO, I don't think the hard part is the what to do. The hard part is I'm going to do it. ⁓ That's the hard thing for all of us as as humans.
Anthony Codispoti (35:56)
So you talk about, it sounds like your process is very customized, right? You go in and you've got to talk with that person. You've got to understand what's going on. What are some of the most common problems, common challenges? What's the thing that's wrong most often that you see?
Maigread Eichten (36:01)
Very.
my god, I'm okay now try not to be too passionate about this. I'm so passionate about this.
I just interviewed 30 young college grads for a job in my own company. It was really interesting. Out of the 30, only one could tell me in one minute why they could add value to my business. One. Right there, that is the key thing. If you're hiring someone, it's because you have a business need and you need them to be able to articulate.
I'm the person that's going to solve your business problem. And then let me show you through my experience. Portfolios are great for this. We all love visual depictions of things. This is how I'm going to do it. And what I find most of us give a, hey, I'm a graduate from this college and I majored in this and I took these classes and I had this internship. That was my 29 people. Well, you lost me.
That took you 10 minutes and I'm like, plus I don't want to do the work. I don't want to think through, well, you worked at Patagonia. Like, how would that help me with my business?
Anthony Codispoti (37:33)
So it's really the core thing that you're pulling at right here is being able to articulate what it is that you can do for them. Not this sort of long rambling resume, but put yourself into the employer's shoes. They're looking for somebody to fill a role. They have a need. How can you prove to them that you are the person to fill that need?
Maigread Eichten (37:54)
Yes.
And getting back to being human, you know, if I'm working at PepsiCo, I am passionate about beverages and I'm super into that. And if somebody comes to me and says, I'm passionate about beverages and I can help you drive more water sales or soda sales, that resonates. It builds trust, it builds an interest. And I just find that that is, again, there's all sorts of steps to that.
But that is sort of the first thing. And unfortunately, recruiters spend about 30 seconds, maybe a minute making that decision. Whether they're interviewing you or also important when they look at your LinkedIn. I'm very passionate about using LinkedIn properly and there's a huge opportunity there that most people, not just college grads, are not utilizing.
Anthony Codispoti (38:52)
They're just not utilizing it at all or are they doing it incorrectly?
Maigread Eichten (38:56)
So here's the thing, back when I started, LinkedIn was a resume service. You put up your information. What's changed is LinkedIn now is an algorithm and is a social media company just like Instagram or anything else. So you want to be able to have, use LinkedIn, understanding the algorithm. So there are, I mean, this part of my business is actually very data driven, it's very factual.
There's a way to put your headline in there. There's a picture. There's a way to have your picture. There's a way your experience should be listed. You can put your portfolio on there. There's a whole methodology that I take all my clients through because it's a very straightforward. Just do it this way because you want the recruiters. You want to come up in the search results so the recruiter sees you. And then the real, like let's call it the, if you get to the graduate level of LinkedIn, posting.
only 1 % of the billion people on LinkedIn post every week and they post effectively. And that if you want to reach out to the companies that you're interested in and you want to get the jobs, you get the recruiters, posting is very, very effective. But again, it's very different than posting on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok. And there's a methodology around that.
Anthony Codispoti (40:19)
And so what is a potential
job applicant supposed to weekly on LinkedIn that's going to help their chances?
Maigread Eichten (40:26)
So let's use an example. ⁓ I have, I work with lots of folks that want to be marketing people. Okay? If you're a marketer, the biggest thing in your year is the Super Bowl. People spend millions and millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads. And even if you're not advertising on Super Bowl, you're watching to see what other marketers are doing.
to try to figure out what are the cool things. Last year it was AI, every year it's sort of different. Posting after the Super Bowl on what were those hot things that went on. The halftime show, what were the Easter eggs in there, what did they mean? That is something marketers care about. And then you can look at other companies you're interested in, whether they're ad agencies or consumer product companies, whatever it is, and you can repost and comment on what they, because now you're in the conversation.
Now you're in the conversation to this is what marketers care about. And I use that just as an example of a way you don't want to, you're not going to post what you ate for dinner. You're not going to post where you went on vacation. You're not frankly back to where I started. You're not going to post about you. You're going to post about them and try to engage their interest. And I had a client do this very effectively and she got two recruiters that reached out to her about junior marketing worlds.
Anthony Codispoti (41:53)
reached out to her.
Maigread Eichten (41:53)
super effective,
reached out to her, that's what you want. Because recruiters are using LinkedIn as a sourcing function. They put in all the information, here's what I'm looking for here, and then what pops up? LinkedIn profiles that have been optimized for the algorithm, and then if you're effectively posting, that's the personal side to me. That's the, this person's interesting. They have a point of view, maybe I hadn't thought of.
Anthony Codispoti (42:24)
So I'm trying to connect the dots and a bunch of the things that you're doing. A lot of it is related to LinkedIn, making sure that your profile is set up correctly so the algorithm likes it. You're posting. ⁓ You're helping folks ⁓ maybe structure their resume correctly, helping them get ready for an interview, helping them communicate their value to that company. What else? What am I missing here, Marine?
Maigread Eichten (42:42)
Absolutely.
So I kind of think about it as, know, step one is what are we doing here? What do you want to do? Because you've got to be focused if you're going to take all these steps. And then we do the, I think of the LinkedIn and the resume as sort of, they need to be AI ready because AI is going to read both and also human ready. So we do all the materials. Sometimes we do a portfolio also. But the...
Probably the biggest way you're going to get a job is through networking and this is what's tough when you when I clients that come to me after they've Graduated and they've been out of work for a year in a perfect world. You want to start networking Freshman year in college because you're not networking to get a job you're Getting to know people you're doing informational interviews to see what jobs are out there. What are people doing?
And I find that this is a hard thing for all of us because we're kind of embarrassed. We don't want to take up people's time. But I have found, and I've had some very shy clients that used to tell them this, people love talking about themselves. And if you're interested and curious, people will take time. They will. They'll have a coffee with you. They'll do a video chat. And you will resonate with some of them in a deeper way.
My rule of thumb is about 30 % of them will actually help you.
Anthony Codispoti (44:24)
Wow. So I want to go through kind of a mini case study here. I understand there's a young man that you worked with. He had spent nine months ⁓ after graduation looking for jobs, no offers, ⁓ started working with you and within six weeks he had two offers. What changed?
Maigread Eichten (44:25)
30%.
Yeah.
So that was an interesting one and it kind of gets back to the customization. This is a young man who had an incredible network through his family. Both of his parents were in tech. He was looking for a job in tech. There were many opportunities of people that would help him. We did all the typical things about getting his resume and LinkedIn ⁓ set for what he wanted, which he knew. But the piece he was missing was
How do I reach out to these senior people that my parents say I should talk to? What do I do? And I think that's very, very fair and very daunting, right? How do I reach out to them if I'm, in his case, he actually was at a Christmas party with people. And we practiced, how do you break into a conversation and chat with people, show interest, make a connection, and make an ask?
Hey, I'd be really interested in that SDR role that you have. Could we meet later on? Killer, how do you follow up? Not with an email that's three paragraphs long. Succinct, to the point. Some folks, you can even text. Depends on the relationship. So was all about how do you those network opportunities. And frankly, once we got that nailed down, and that also fueled the
elevator pitch and the you know how am I going to meet with all these people what do I do when I actually get the interview I mean I'm so excited for him he nailed a phenomenal job and again that's why I do this that's that's the payoff for me
Anthony Codispoti (46:30)
Yeah,
I can see your face lighting up. So on the other end of it, though, Maureen, I know that you fired clients before. What does someone have to do or not do for you to fire them?
Maigread Eichten (46:40)
yeah!
⁓ yeah. So I cannot personally get a job for anyone. I tell this to clients, I tell this to parents. They're not employing me. So I have to have a client that is willing to do the work. This is a ton of work. It's so funny because I have these weekly sessions with people and then they have homework of things they need to do and I always preface, look, I know this is a lot.
It's a lot that you have to do to get a job in today's environment. And sending out 500 applications is not the work we're going to be doing. We're going to be very focused. But you're going to have to cold call people, you're going to have to follow up, you're going to have to do the work. And I fire clients that are not willing to do that. Now, I'm cool with going at their pace. Some folks, like the young man you mentioned,
was all in, did all the work and nailed it really fast. Other people take months to figure out what do I want to do? How do I build my story? How do I get comfortable interview? I have infinite patience to help you along your journey. And some of us, like for all of us, right? And I'm an athlete, I know this, it's taken me a long time to get my running where it needs to be so I could do a half marathon.
but I can swim for hours and hours. We're all like that. And so there's a part of the process that's harder for some of us. And I'm okay with that, but I'm not okay if you won't do the work because again, I can't get you the job. ⁓ And you're going to be frustrated with me if you don't get a job. So that's kind of the pact I make with the clients on day one.
Anthony Codispoti (48:37)
So as I understand it, recruiters have told you something about what's actually happening with job applications right now that a lot of applicants and parents are not aware of. What is it that you're hearing?
Maigread Eichten (48:50)
So I talk to recruiters all the time. The first thing is they're 100 % overwhelmed. They're getting hundreds, if not thousands of applications for any job they post, regardless of where they post. And so I had one so bluntly say that if there is not a referral, that application goes in the trash. The numbers are overwhelming. There is no other way for them to do it.
Now, before you say, oh my God, I don't know somebody at Nike or wherever. What's interesting and what I've experimented with my clients is very effective is using LinkedIn to reach out to people. We've seen about a 20 to 25 % response rate to doing a cold link out, link to somebody in a company where you're interested in working. Now there's tactics around that.
That's not everybody. That's typically not super senior people. It's people more junior people who have the role you're currently interested in and Then can you build a connection with that person? I went to the same school. I have the same hobby Whatever it is and we do a lot of work on that because if you think about it a 20 to 25 percent response rate if you can get a roof you can get somebody to
speak with you, odds are they'll refer you for that job and now you're at the top of the pile. ⁓ And so I found that to be super, it makes me feel good about humans. People will help. No, it does.
Anthony Codispoti (50:30)
So, but walk
me through, okay, so I send out 10 LinkedIn requests, maybe get two or three folks that, you know, reply affirmatively. Now, how do I take that connection there and turn it into something more meaningful?
Maigread Eichten (50:50)
Well, it's numbers game, right? So I tell my clients you're gonna reach out to, let's call it 10 people. Let's back up a minute, right? You've done the work to know why you are the right person for this job. You know why you're the right person in this company. You are able to articulate your pitch of why you're gonna help the business in one minute and all your materials are gonna tell that story. So just let's assume all that's done.
Because when you reach out to somebody on LinkedIn and says, hey, I'm interested in the SDR role at this tech company, right? The first thing they're going to do is look at your LinkedIn. And if your LinkedIn says, I'm a biology major at so-and-so college, they're going to be like, OK. So that's an important thing to think about. And then the link has to be some connection you make with who they are. Back to what I said before.
People love talking about themselves and they love it when you're interested in them. So you have to do research, you have to figure out what is interesting about this person. What is interesting, what's my connection? You can be an alumni, but it needs to be a little deeper than that. Hey, I noticed that I swam on the swim team and you were on the diving team and something like that or.
⁓ I see that you started your career at XYZ company and that was a company that my parents worked at or so on and so forth. Again, back to the work, takes a lot of work, but it's golden.
Anthony Codispoti (52:28)
Is the goal
in this strategy in particular to get a phone conversation with that person?
Maigread Eichten (52:36)
Yes, yes, and that's a good point. This is not, hey, refer me for the job. This is a step process. First step one is can you get them on the phone? And again, what I have found, I'm so happy about this. About 25 % of the time, they're gonna say yeah. Now, you gotta reach out to them. This is, all my clients hate this. At least three times. And I do this myself. I don't know, people are busy.
The first time I don't even answer because I'm like, well, they'll ask me again. The second time I might miss it. It takes three times. And that's hard for all of us because we, it's hard not to take that personal. Well, they looked at my LinkedIn and they don't like me or they think my name's weird or they don't like blonde hair or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Three times you'll get 20 to 25%. You get on the phone. And when I find, most of my clients have wonderful phone conversations.
Because if people say they're going to talk to you, they've already said yes. So usually those are delightful conversations. And I would say a reasonable percentage. I'm shocked again that those folks you have a conversation with actually then will go to the recruiter or the hiring manager and say, I talked to ⁓ Sally and I think you should consider her.
Anthony Codispoti (53:55)
powerful.
Maigread Eichten (53:56)
It makes me so happy, to be honest. just, I just, it... Yes! Yes. Yes.
Anthony Codispoti (53:59)
Faith in humanity, I love it. Okay, so let's shift gears
now, Maigread. I wanna explore one of the hardest things that you've had to overcome personally and understand what you learned going through that.
Maigread Eichten (54:18)
So many hard things that happen in life as you go along in your career. But I would say that, so I was at Webvan as we mentioned, and though Webvan didn't survive, I had a great nine months there and I ended up landing at this tech company, which was great, it was a little business. And I had been there, I got there in 2000, I had been there maybe nine months.
and the dot com crash occurred and my stock options were at $84. I remember this so distinctly. I thought, I'm going to get rich. We all think this. And the stock plummeted to $5. And the CEO called a company wide meeting and he was a very, so you have to set the scene. He's a very large Greek, very masculine, very stoic.
kind of guy, he calls a little company together and he breaks down crying that we're not going to have enough cash to keep the business afloat. And I'm thinking, what the heck? have, a single mom, I have three kids, they're small. I left my cushy job at Pepsi. my God. Like this is like really bad. And for anybody that lived during that time period in the Valley, there were no jobs.
A lot of companies went out of business and it was a bloodbath. And I remember just thinking, okay, I'm going to hunker down the business I was running at the time. ⁓ We had too many employees. had to ⁓ lay off 50 % of the people. And the good news was I figured, okay, if I get this business to profitability,
they're probably gonna keep me. They need money, they need not top line, they actually need ⁓ profit. And we did that and I did survive and the company did survive. ⁓ And those options never got to be $84. But I had a job ⁓ and I was there for quite a long period of time. But going through that was so valuable.
because you realize that as a entrepreneur and a leader, you've got to balance growth with good business sense. Nothing goes up and up forever. Nothing. And making money, if you're at a company and you contribute to the bottom line, that is a great position to be in. ⁓ And I always stress this as I work with clients. Let's find you a company that has a financial flywheel.
that is solid because if a market downturn occurs, you want to be in a position where the company can continue to survive.
Anthony Codispoti (57:17)
So there's a recurring theme here. This is something you mentioned earlier in our conversation about if you can be in a role to drive revenue for a company, man, you've just made yourself super valuable.
Maigread Eichten (57:31)
CEOs, again, this is where being an operator is helpful to my business. Myself and my coaches, we are all ex-operators. We've all run businesses. So we know what recruiters want and what the jobs are that are valuable to a company. We are not coaches and we try not to be therapists because we are not trained. That is not our thing. We are operators. So how do you...
provide, just be able to demonstrate you a value to a company and then get in a role where you are delivering value. And especially, you we talked about how right now the economy is very uncertain. CEOs are very uncertain. Business operators are saying, hey, I'm only hiring if I know that this role is going to stay and that it can deliver for me. And we go through cycles, right? During COVID, it was bring your dog to work, work remotely.
It was very, very different. Now we're in a situation where, no, every employee needs to deliver and demonstrate it to me, which is why I'm also passionate, be in person. Remote is so fun. Remote is fun, right? We all want to take our dog for a walk and sit in the sun for lunch and blah, But, know, remote employees, it's hard to see what they're doing. And so in a tough environment, ⁓ I stress,
Anthony Codispoti (58:42)
Mm.
Maigread Eichten (58:59)
get a job in the office. And the data bears that out. College grads that take a remote job, 50 % are out of work in a year. 50.
Anthony Codispoti (59:10)
is this
a current stat? Like right now this is...
Maigread Eichten (59:13)
Current stat,
current stat, 50%.
Anthony Codispoti (59:18)
And you think that's
because there's this uncertainty between the employer and the employee about what that person's doing.
Maigread Eichten (59:25)
I think that's human nature, right? Now, I also don't think it's great for the new employee because again, back to how did you get your job? You got your job because of a network connection. You build networks by being in person with people and going to lunch with them and seeing them at the coffee pot and so on and so forth. So I think there's a lot of reasons to be in person for your career. You also learn, but the stat is overwhelming.
So for whatever reason, it's a risky thing to do as a new employee.
Anthony Codispoti (1:00:00)
Maigread, what is the thing in your role now with Career Expedite that you most want to be remembered for?
Maigread Eichten (1:00:11)
Great question.
I want to be remembered that I helped people early in their career get a job and get be able to take that first step out of college into the workforce with confidence, probably not going to be the perfect thing. You may decide in a year you want to go do something else, but be able to take that first step. ⁓ Because just like being a freshman in college, that first step is the hardest.
It's tough.
Anthony Codispoti (1:00:48)
And I think a big part of what I'm hearing from you today, just sort of encapsulating the whole conversation is that the job market is brutal. There's no denying that, especially for recent college grads. And at the same time, you are also finding folks jobs or you're helping folks to find their jobs.
Maigread Eichten (1:01:06)
Yeah.
Yeah. And this is the balance, right? I you got to recognize your reality. It's back to the, know, I'm blonde. I'm from California. My last name used to be Martinez. That's my that's who I am. You got to be realistic. The market's really difficult, but there are jobs and there's tactics to get you a job. And if you're willing to do the work, it can happen. It will have.
Anthony Codispoti (1:01:34)
I've just got one more question for you today. But before I ask it, I want to do three quick things for the audience. First of all, anybody who wants to get in touch with Mairead, other than Googling her very unique name, ⁓ is go to our website, careerexpedite.com. That's a whole lot easier to spell, careerexpedite.com. It will be in the show notes if you miss it, but careerexpedite.com. And if you're enjoying the show today, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you're listening.
It also sends a signal that helps others discover our podcast. So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can be the advisor that delivers a huge value add by showing your clients how to give their employees access to therapists, doctors, and prescription meds that counterintuitively increases their net profits. Real gains that can change how a business is valued. So contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, Maureen. So last question for you. A year from today,
What is one very specific thing that you hope to be celebrated?
Maigread Eichten (1:02:38)
I hope to be celebrating that all the clients I'm working with have jobs. And I didn't mention this, but I often hear from folks. A couple months in, at first I don't hear from them. They're busy, they're getting settled. And then I hear from them a couple months in and that just brings me great joy. And I've had folks that I've then, I've got at least one young lady right now who's looking for a new opportunity and we're working through the next thing. ⁓ So it's really this... ⁓
relationship that I hope that goes on for a period of time. We all need mentors and people that are in our corners.
Anthony Codispoti (1:03:15)
love it. Maureed Eichton from career, excuse me, expedite.com. We'll do that again. Maureed Eichton from careerexpedite.com. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate you being here.
Maigread Eichten (1:03:20)
Hahaha
This is great. I really loved it. Thanks.
Anthony Codispoti (1:03:33)
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.
Connect with Maigread Eichten:
Website: careerexpedite.com
LinkedIn: Maigread Eichten