by Kacey
If you are considering a new job, Jeremy Shifeling has some advice on how to navigate social media so employers will find you! And, Sascha Rothschild found success as a screenwriter, now she is diving into her first book. She has advice for writers too.
Transcript
This is Shine On, The health and happiness show, With new episodes every week on how to live well. Shine On is heard all over the world as a podcast, But it's heard first on the radio in New York's Hudson Valley. Hi, It's Casey, Thank you so much for tuning in to Shine On. Here we are in the month of May, And we've got a chance for you to win a wonderful book that maybe you can take on vacation. It's called Blood Sugar by Sasha Rothschild. She is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter who has written and produced for shows like Glow, The Babysitter's Club, The Carrie Diaries. Universal Studios has her screenplay, How to Get Divorced, By 30. Blood Sugar, Her first novel, The tagline reads, She's accused of four murders, She's only guilty of three. You're gonna like her a bunch, She's coming right up. First, We're talking graduates, We're talking getting a job, And I found like a little LinkedIn Robin Hood. Jeremy Shifling used to work at LinkedIn before he started his own company, Thejobinsiders. Com. He can help graduates and all of us get our LinkedIn profile looking good so it might actually lead to a job, But you will hear my exasperation because I have no idea what I'm doing on LinkedIn, Or most social media for that matter. So Jeremy, I ask you, What the heck is LinkedIn all about? I know it's very, Very popular, Especially with so many people looking for work. Oh, Absolutely, So it's a great resignation. It's been gangbusters business for LinkedIn, But it's also great for your listeners. You know, If there's ever been an opportunity to reinvent yourself, To find the perfect job, Now is the time. There are more than 100, 000 jobs open just in the Westchester area alone, So this is the moment. All right, On behalf of all the people who have no idea what they're doing, What the heck? I mean, I can't wrap myself around LinkedIn. What am I missing? So the first thing to understand is that even though LinkedIn seems like yet another social network, Another Facebook, Another Instagram, It's really much more like a tool, A tool to help you accomplish an important goal, Which is getting access to the best opportunities in the world, And if you understand that on the other side of the screen, There are millions of recruiters who are searching LinkedIn every day trying to find you, And you can realize, Hey, I've gotta be on there, I've gotta be in the game so I can be discovered. So recruiters are looking for people. What kind of, How do, Hmm, Hmm, What's the language I use to let the recruiter know I'm the one? Yeah, So the lingua franca, If you will, LinkedIn is all about keywords. Do you have the exact things that a recruiter is typing into their search box so that when the algorithm scrubs through all these profiles, Yours rises to the top of the list? So that includes things like the job title, The skills, The experiences, All the stuff that makes you uniquely you has to be on your profile so you can be discovered. All right, Now do I have to click a special button or something that says I am looking for a job, Or is this more subtle than that? Ah, So Casey, You're onto something really important here, Which is in the last couple of years, LinkedIn has rolled out this thing on your profile where you can basically raise your hand and say, Hey, I'm open to work, I'm in the game. And by the way, Recruiters can filter for that signal because they don't wanna waste time on people who aren't interested. So I highly encourage all of your listeners who are interested in finding a new job, Turn on that bat signal. Let recruiters know, Hey, I'm awesome, Come and get me. All right, Where is this bat signal located? If you go to your profile on LinkedIn, At the very top, There's a section called open to work. And there you can specify here are the jobs that I want, Here's the kind of work I wanna be doing, Whether it's onsite or remote. And by the way, You can shine that signal only to recruiters who don't work at your current company so you don't have to worry about the HR department ratting you out to your current boss. So that was my next question, Like how do you keep this from your current employer? Yeah, LinkedIn's got your back. You know, You can definitely share it with anyone if you're a total free agent, But if you're currently employed, You can keep it on the down low. Wow, Okay. So you are a LinkedIn career coach. Tell us about what you do. So my big goal is that I think LinkedIn is a great site for anyone who wants to unlock opportunity, But it's too hard to figure out. You know, Even having worked at LinkedIn, There were all these people there who didn't really get it. And so I wanna make sure that everyone out there has access to the best opportunities, And that means sharing these secrets. Oh, Wow, How does LinkedIn feel about that? I guess they'd be okay with it, Right? Yeah, Honestly, It's all good for LinkedIn because they want more people to use them as well. And I think the reality is, Is that until students and recent grads and alumni and career changers really understand how it works from the inside out, People won't be able to take advantage of all these rich tools. All right, So you're the job insiders, You're the LinkedIn guys. And I'm so gratified to hear that even some of the people that work there found it cumbersome. I mean, Those are my words, But it just seems to be a lot. Are there LinkedIn police? You know, If I post the wrong thing to LinkedIn, Because for a while there, It felt like just another Facebook. Yeah, I totally get that. And so this is the critical thing, Is that LinkedIn is not a place like Facebook or Twitter just to waste time, To post about what you ate for lunch today, As fascinating as that might be. Instead, If you're gonna be posting on LinkedIn, Make sure it meets two criteria. Number one, Are you sharing something valuable, Something you will learn in your experience as a radio host? And then number two, Are you sharing it with the right people? Have you tagged other folks in the radio industry? Have you used hashtags like radio job to make sure that the right eyeballs are seeing the right content? All right, So I have to tag other people and use the right hashtags. That's right. I'm writing all this down. So tell me now about your career, Thejobinsiders. Com, What's going on over there? So basically, On that site, We've got all these free LinkedIn tips and the chance, By the way, To get one-on-one coaching with my co-author and myself. So if you really wanna make sure that your LinkedIn profile stands out, We'll take it from zero to 60 all the way to get it ready for prime time. I love that. All right, You say LinkedIn is the great opportunity democratizer. Tell me what that means. So here's the reality. As few as 20 or 30 years ago, We still lived in an old boys network economy, By which I mean, If you went to the right school, Knew the right people, You got access to the best jobs. If you didn't, You were out. But now that every single one, Old boys, New boys, Non-boys are on LinkedIn, You have a chance to reach out to anyone yourself no matter where you went to school, No matter your background. And so I know tons of people who didn't go to college or didn't go to fancy colleges who've landed amazing jobs through LinkedIn just by plugging into the right people, Building those relationships, And getting access to opportunity. Talk to me about LinkedIn's algorithm. Like, Why do I see what I see and how do I know where my stuff is going? Yeah, And it's so funny because, You know, The word algorithm conjures up all this fancy stuff around AI and data science. But the reality is, Is all it's doing is it's matching patterns. So for example, If I'm a recruiter and I put in, I need someone with radio hosting experience and journalism expertise and experience doing media stuff, And then you have all those keywords on your profile, That's gonna tell the algorithm, Hey, Casey's profile's at the top of my list. So just make sure that you take any job description you're excited about and you reverse engineer it. Do I have the most important skills right there on my profile? What are some skills? Definitely some of the things we were just talking about. And again, It's all different for different industries. But let me give your listeners a really great hack. So if you wanna get your own customized list of keywords, Head over to another site called jobscan. Co and all for free, You can basically analyze any job description and your profile to figure out what are the most important keywords and which ones are you missing? Jobscan? Jobscan. Co. . Co, Okay, Terrific. And that's gonna tell me, I'll type in what kind of job I'm looking for and that's gonna tell me what keywords to use. That's exactly right. Do we still have on LinkedIn that part where people were recommending us or something? I had people I didn't know recommending me or congratulating me or rating me on skills I've never accomplished. Like what the heck was all that about? You hit the nail on the head there, Casey. So those are called endorsements. And they were this idea that, Hey, Maybe we could figure out what Casey's really good at by having her network rate her. But here's the problem. Back when those things came out, My own mother started rating me for astronomy and zoology, All this stuff I didn't even know anything about. And so they're just not trustworthy, Even 10 years later, Versus recommendations. So if someone goes to your profile and actually writes up, I was Casey's boss at WHUD, She was the best host we ever had, That means a ton because that's the only third-party validation that's real and legitimate in the eyes of recruiters, About recommendations. Recommendations. So a whole rigid sort of testimonial to why Casey is so awesome. Oh my gosh, So who should we ask for recommendations? So in general, You wanna talk to people who had some kind of power over you, Either as a boss or a client, Because if you have your own direct reports doing it, Then there's the question about, Wait a second, Did they actually feel this way or did Casey pressure them to say that? So anyone who was a little bit higher than you on the totem pole, That's a great person to ask. Anything else our listeners need to know? Are there any hacks or important information that we left out that you wanna share? Yeah, So check this out. I'll leave your listeners with one great hack, Which is, If you find anyone on LinkedIn and you're like, Hey, I wanna reach out to Casey or I wanna reach out to Robert or Tanya, And you say, You know what? LinkedIn is telling me I have to pay 100 bucks a month to access LinkedIn Premium so I can send them a message. Forget about it. Instead, Go to another site called hunter. Io and you can actually look up their real work email address without paying a cent. And now you get in touch with the right person, Which gets you a referral, Gets your foot in the door, And you don't have to pay LinkedIn anything for that privilege. All right, I think LinkedIn really liked you up until this moment. Yeah, That's right. I might have lost them right there, But I think it's more important to help your listeners be successful and not waste their money. Oh, You're too much. You have made me feel so much better about life today. I'm telling you, I thought I was the only person out there that was lost in LinkedIn land. Okay, So thejobinsiders. Com, That's how we find you. So if you go to thejobinsiders. Com, You can actually sign up for a free profile review with Omar and myself and get lots of other bonus resources. That's Jeremy Shifling from thejobinsiders. Com. Maybe that's a gift you wanna give to the graduate in your life. So when it comes to LinkedIn, I've learned now from Jeremy, It's all about the keywords and it's all about the recommendations. Good luck to you if you are looking for a job on LinkedIn. I hope that helped a little bit. And Jeremy maybe can help you more at thejobinsiders. Com. Hi, It's Casey. Thank you for tuning in to Shine On, The Health and Happiness Show, Where we talk about all kinds of good things to make life a little better. Ladies, Please join me on a circle of women on Facebook. We have a summer retreat coming up in August at Merriondale in Ossining, New York. And on Instagram, Another place where I am lost, You can find me at Casey Shine On. I hope you find yourself relaxing this summer or sooner with a wonderful book on your lap and Sasha Rothschild would like it to be this book, Blood Sugar, A novel. Sasha, An Emmy nominated screenwriter, Has written and produced for Glow, The Bold Type, Babysitter's Club, The Carrie Diaries. She's written for all kinds of magazines. Blood Sugar is her debut novel. And Sasha Rothschild, Since we're looking at graduates and people applying for jobs, How did you get the wonderful job of screenwriter? I love television. And I wanted to write for television my whole life. And I love diving into really complicated characters that the audience can stay with hopefully season after season and love sometimes and hate sometimes, But really always be very invested. And that is why I love television a little bit more than movies, Which you only get two hours with the person. Right. How did you get, I don't want to call it lucky because you're brilliantly talented, But a lot of people want to be an Emmy nominated screenwriter. So, So many. How did you do it? I moved to Los Angeles and got a waitressing job, Which I think is the first step. And I just started writing and writing and writing and got an agent and got almost tired and almost tired. And I never gave up on my own voice, Telling stories that I was interested in. And my big break was actually an article that I wrote called How to Get Divorced by 30. And that article got optioned to be a feature film. And then I got hired to write that feature film. So I just stuck to my own stories and my own voice and it all lined up, But it took many years. Oh, That just thrills me. It thrills me. And did you actually get divorced by 30? I did. I had a little starter marriage for two and a half years and it was a very amicable divorce. There were no children involved. We were young. We were very much not in love. And I ended up writing a very funny memoir about the steps to taking your twenties if you wanted to get that first one out of the way. That's so great. All right, Let's get this first novel out of the way. It's called Blood Sugar. She's accused of four murders. She's only guilty of three. When did this idea pop into your head? Well, It has to do with my second and forever husband. I remarried happily 10 years ago. And my husband is a type one diabetic, Which means he could have a low blood sugar and it's very dangerous and he could actually die. And there's something called dead in bed for type one diabetics. He has a glucose monitor. If it's low, It beeps. It wakes me up. I wake him up. He eats sugar. He's safe, He's good, He's fine. But because I'm a writer and my brain is constantly creating stories, I started to think, What if he died? Well, That's just terrible. But then I started to think, Would the police think I somehow murdered him because the spouse is always the first suspect? Then my brain left even further and thought, Well, Wouldn't it be annoying if I had murdered people, Gotten away with it? Now I'm being accused of the one murder I did not commit. So that all came to me at about 3 a. M. A few years ago. And I leaned over to my phone and I started scribbling notes. And now we have blood sugar. Crying, I'm crying. This is wonderful. What does your husband think of the book? He's very proud of me. And he understands that it is fiction, Of course, And that I am a writer and I will always take moments from my life and then twist them around to create heightened moments. And so he's very pleased with the book. All right, Tell us about some of the characters we're going to meet in Blood Sugar. Ruby Simon is our anti-hero. And the book is told in first person through her eyes. We get to know her very intimately. And from chapter one, We are with her as a five-year-old girl and she shockingly commits her first murder. So this book starts with a big bang, So to speak. And I think readers will either be horrified, Which is exciting, Or be really curious, Which is exciting. And we will understand why Ruby did what she did and we'll get to know her and quickly realize she is sitting in a police station at 30 years old being interrogated. And as she's being interrogated, We flashback to different moments in her life. We grow up with her, We see her through her teen years, Her college years, And she's our main girl. Beautiful. Screenwriting, Are you going back and forth now between these two things? Is there another novel coming? How are you going to maneuver the rest of the future? I would love to write another novel. This has been a really wonderful experience. I also am still working in television. I am show running a new series for Netflix. Right now we're shooting in Korea, Actually. There's these adorable, Wonderful movies called To All the Boys I've Loved Before. And we are doing a spinoff with the youngest sister in her time studying abroad in Korea. So that is a new TV series that I'm working on while I'm thinking about novel number two and while I'm talking about novel number one, Blood Sugar. All right, To All the Boys I've Loved Before, A spinoff, When can we see it? Well, Hopefully, And the spinoff is called Exo Kitty and it will be on Netflix, I hope, In the spring of 2023, But we do not have an official date yet. What does Sasha Rothschild watch when she has time? Well, What I watch is reality shows because when I watch television, Scripted television, Really elevated television, I start to think, I should be writing, I should be working. Why didn't I think of that? But there's something about reality shows I can completely relax. I am hooked on The Real Housewives. I am hooked on Love is Blind. I watch American Idol. So my TV viewing is not hoity-toity, So to speak. Beautiful, All right, What else do you want our listeners to know about you? I would love the listeners to pick up a copy of Blood Sugar and read it with friends, Read it for a book club. I think some people will like it and some might hate it and that's very exciting. I would love to elicit some debate and some talks about is Ruby Simon a good person? Is she someone you'd be friends with? Can you relate to her or do you hate her? And I think that makes for the most interesting book. And also, How do you interact with your fans and now readers? I am on Instagram, It's SashaGRothschild and I'm on Twitter, It's SashaRothschild and my website is SashaRothschild. Com and I am open to chatting with fans and communicating in those ways. Finally, Advice for creative types who want to write? My advice is sit down and do it. I meet lots of people who tell me they have a great idea for a screenplay but the hard part is sitting down and actually writing it and so that's the first step, Just sit at your desk and stare at the blank page and start typing the words. Great advice, If you wanna be a writer, You gotta write. She's accused of four murders, She's only guilty of three. Blood Sugar, A novel by Sasha Rothschild. If you'd like to be entered to win a copy of the book, You can email me from the website, Casey'sPlace. Com, K-A-C-E-Y-S-P-L-A-C-E. Com. She was a lot of fun. And speaking of fun, The warmer days of May are here. Maybe you're having a little fun in the garden. Maybe you'd like to have a little fun in the garden. I just started following on Instagram. I know, I don't know what I'm doing there but I started following Garden underscore Marcus and he's this guy that just loves his plants. He wrote a book called How to Grow. His posts are great and it just seems like he's so happy in nature. So I went to one of my favorite places, Psychology Today, To find evidence about the effects of gardening. And of course I found some wonderful research by a Dr. Seth J. Gillihan who reports the 10 mental health benefits of gardening. The first one he says is practicing acceptance. He writes, Most of our suffering comes from trying to control things that we can't. You'll learn to practice acceptance in your garden because things don't always come out as you plan them. Another benefit of gardening is moving beyond perfectionism. Given the lack of control we actually have in gardening, It can be a good antidote for perfectionism. Dr. Gillihan says you'll develop a growth mindset in the garden. With a growth mindset we assume we're always learning and when something doesn't work out the way we hoped, Although we do hope you have a successful garden, You'll start to view things more as opportunities, Learning opportunities rather than failure. Gardeners get to connect with each other and connection is great for your mindset. You also feel, According to the article, More connected to all of nature when you plant a garden. Another positive aspect is what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku. That can be translated as forest bathing. There's a growing body of research that says being out in nature helps with depression and anxiety. Mindfulness is another benefit of gardening. You may find some zen moments. Plus there's the physical exercise which actually reduces stress. And another side benefit is you'll probably eat a little healthier too if you're growing wonderful vegetables. And that always puts me in mind of the song from the Fantastics, The musical. Plant a radish, Get a radish, Never any doubt. That's why I love vegetables. You know what they're about. So happy springtime, Enjoy the warm weather. I hope to run into you one of these days at the Market on the River where we're doing yoga every Sunday outside at 10. And this Sunday at the Market on the River, We have a free drumming circle at noon. Find out more at letitshineonline. Com. And remember we have our women's retreat this summer in August at the Merriondale Center. Plan on bringing your friends. Check the calendar at merriondale. Org. We've got a swim and pool and air conditioning on this retreat. So whether this spring finds you looking for a job or relaxing with a good book or planting in the garden, Our thought for the day is from Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote, The Earth Laughs in Flowers. Shine on. You've been listening to Shine On, The health and happiness show with new episodes every week. It's your time to shine on. ♪
