Inside JobReady2day: The Journey, Mission, and Tips for Success

Kurtis Tompkins (: 00:00

Now it's funny that you mentioned garage. Now it didn't happen that way. It was in a small room in an apartment back in 2017 in the wee hours of the morning. It was around two or three -ish in the morning. The business, it just hit me. And when it hit me, I got up, I had a small netbook at the time. It was a small blue netbook and I started to...

type away, typing away, typing away. And at the end of the morning, I find myself registering the domain because I had another business name in my mind and it didn't work. And it's funny because I don't even remember what that was, but Job Ready to Date, that name came to me and I said, you know what? I want to be different. So I'm gonna put two in there and put the D -E -Y. But it happened in the wee hours of the morning in the room. And when everything came together in my mind and I started to, you know,

get out there and things of that nature today. We have a team. Thankfully, oh, it's just awesome.

Intro Voice Over (: 01:09

It's time to dial in with Deb.

Deb Curtis (: 01:17

to support small business owners and unite voices. And we have a great guest today who is going to tell us about his journey. And he supports a lot of job seekers and, and those who want to change careers. And for those of you who may know me, I like to help people purchase finance established businesses. And I'm excited about today's guests because in order to, to.

be qualified to purchase finance, a small business, if you ever want to promote yourself to CEO of a small business, you got to have a corporate background of employment. And as y 'all know, we started our careers probably at the bottom of the ladder. I mean, I remember my first job, I was a customer service rep and I had to prove to my supervisors that I could get promoted to

an assistant management role. And then when I got into on that part of the ladder, it was a step up. Then I had to prove that I could be a branch manager, managing people. And then I got into small business lending. So that corporate resume of mine, I'll tell you, I could not do what I'm doing today with being a solopreneur if it wasn't for my corporate employment experiences. And just like,

many of you perhaps in the room today, my experiences too on my journey, I was abruptly let go and all of a sudden in a moment of time in panic, disarray, what am I going to do? Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you that there are, there's a plethora of opportunities of things that we can do and it doesn't have to always be buying a business and it doesn't always have to be starting one up.

it might be a career change. And that's the beauty of our free world is we have choices and it's up to us to make those choices in our life. And yes, there will be times where the door is closed. I always like to say rejection is a form of God's protection. That's one of my favorite mantras. You know, my higher power is God. We all have our higher powers. Sometimes rejection is a form of

Deb Curtis (: 03:43

protection in one way or another. So look at it as opportunity. Thank you, Jason, for the heart. And for those of you, Timothy, the thumbs up, I'm so glad you joined. If you would, if you go to the event and there's a share button right where you click join, you just click on that and share it with your connections. And that will kind of help us fill up the room because Kurtis, our special guest today, he's going to bring some really good education for those of us.

looking for a career change, or maybe we know friends or family that have been abruptly displaced, just what opportunities his business job ready today can bring. So without further ado, let me introduce to you president Kurtis Tompkins. So we can all give him a round of applause. Thank you, Jason. Kurtis, how are you today, my dear?

I am good. I'm good. Thank you so much for having me today and thank you for all that came to support as well. Oh my goodness. For those of you listening, I met Kurtis on LinkedIn probably three, four years ago and we've just kind of been supporting each other for that long. Would you agree? I think it's probably pushing around that timeframe. We were supporting each other for a good while. And I must say that you have been

Awesome. Not just with the wonderful content that you share, but also being support, not just to me, but to all of the people that you support on the platform. Thank you. Everybody here in the room. I recognize a lot of familiar faces that they also too are on the platform a lot. And we really are blessed with an opportunity to be able to have events like this where we can use our voices to lift one another and rise up together. So I encourage all of you. I mean,

Kurtis, you would agree with me. I didn't really take LinkedIn seriously on a day -to -day basis until probably two and a half years ago. Prior to that, we were all confused. What is LinkedIn? And then all of this personal branding and telling your story started to become more popular. And I believe over time, the more that you show up, especially supporting others in comments, the more...

Deb Curtis (: 06:02

your community grows and the better you get at your craft of writing your story and telling it in text and in video format from the heart. I know Kurtis, you and I, I think we've seen us both improve over time and we're still learning, right? Yes, yes, yes. That's correct. Yeah, I encourage everyone take advantage of these live events that LinkedIn offers. They're pretty simple. They've come a long way.

LinkedIn audio, especially from where it used to be a year ago, it was clunky and it was scary. It's not that bad. It's a couple of clicks and boom. So we're going to get into the interview now with Curtis and, and then, you know, feel free, use the react button to share any kind of emojis as you see fit. Cause that lets us know you're listening. We know you're multitasking, having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. That's what I like to have on toast and just listen. So.

f, Kurtis. I want to know how: 2017

room in an apartment back in: 2017

or three -ish in the morning, you know how you're laying and you're thinking about things, things are running through your mind. The business, it just hit me. And when it hit me, I got up, I had a small netbook at the time. It was a small blue netbook. It was about what, 10 .1 inches. And I started to type away, typing away, typing away. And...

Kurtis Tompkins (: 08:22

At the end of the morning, I find myself registering the domain because I had another business name in my mind and it didn't work. And it's funny because I don't even remember what that was. But Job Ready to Date, that name came to me and I said, you know what? I want to be different. So I'm going to put two in there and put the D -E -Y. But it happened in the wee hours of the morning in the room. And when everything came together in my mind and I started to, you know,

get out there and things of that nature today. We have a team, thankfully. Oh, it's just awesome. That's, that's my 60 seconds, but yeah, it started in the small room, started in this. Well, so it started in a small room when you had that epiphany, so to speak of what the name of your business would be, where you, were you like trying to sleep in bed or were you actually up in the wee hours of the morning? I was actually up in the wee hours of the morning, but you know,

Sometimes in the way I was the morning when you're thinking, there's you're thinking about things, but activity is not really going on. You're just, you know, pondering, but that pondering, you know, into some action, you know? Yeah. And you would, you started this business up like from ground zero. You didn't acquire it. You didn't inherit a book of business. You had an idea. You knew what the name was. Is that correct? It was a ground up startup.

ne. Yes. Right. And yeah, you: 2017

Uh, it is a blessing and next week, I believe it is the 29th is going to make the seven. Wow. Fantastic. Okay. So tell us job ready today. You started out as one solopreneur startup business. How many employees are you at today? Well, it varies according to our needs. I will say this, um, over the past, um,

Kurtis Tompkins (: 10:45

what I would say three years, we were able to get three other team members aside from myself to be able to get operations going. And we have some plans to do some other things here coming up shortly with some of the initiatives that we've got going on. But yeah. And we'll get into those initiatives because I'm pretty excited about them. Your mission statement emphasizes transforming ambition into action. Give us a little bit more.

of that mission statement, the why behind it. Now, when it comes down to our mission,

Our objective is to make sure that people achieve the goals that they need to achieve. When people come to us, they come with a problem. And it's putting me in the mind of one of our great connections, Dr. Scott, the problem solver. When you come with a problem, our objective is to make sure that they achieve the goal that they're looking for. So whether it's getting a new job, whether it's pivoting in their current career, whatever it is,

We want to turn that into action, but you have to have a strategy in order to make it happen, right? You can't just say that you want to do something. You can't just have a desire to want to do something because all is going to be is words and just a desire. You're going to have to put it into action with a solid strategy. I think I'll be right there for a moment. Yeah. Man, let that sink in not only for, you know,

career services, seeking out where you want to go. You got to take action. Right. Uh, it is similar to if you want to be a business owner, whether you start up, um, or similar to preparing your business, if you want to sell, you thinking about it, doesn't any good. You have to take action, right? So that's where transforming ambition into action comes into play. And I love that. Um, why.

Deb Curtis (: 12:53

Um, I love this. Why career services as your model? Um, what, what made you choose this career path for people, career services versus what is so common is job seekers. I love career services. It sounds more, uh, palatable than a job seeker. It just sounds like.

You're taking me somewhere, Kurtis. So give us some feedback to that. Well, years ago, I got a call from my job developer at the time. And that's like a recruiter for those who are not familiar. I was in the market for a hardware technician role. And he asked if I wanted to teach. I pondered over it a little bit. I'm like, well, OK, why not?

So while working in that position, I was an on -site kind of a break fix consultant and teacher. I was referred by my manager to fill an instructor role with the Research Foundation for the City University of New York. There I taught computer basics, provided career readiness training and revised resumes. And at the end of the first semester, my cohort,

held a graduation celebration. And they talked about the impact the program had on them. And I had to hold it together, not to shed tears, to the feedback that we were receiving. And that feeling, the impact, all of that stuck with me so much so, it was the inspiration for me going back into this line of business years later. So that's why.

That's the why, one of the whys behind why career services. I like that. A lot of inspiration. That's what happens with business owners, you know, their missions, their solutions. Perhaps we all went through some kind of a pain point time in our life and, and whatever that may be. And that's where a lot of our small businesses were born. The idea of.

Deb Curtis (: 15:18

of what we want to do to serve and help others. You know, I noticed you had mentioned that from the moment we started advertising this event that you actually have had job seekers sign up to attend and they're seeking guidance in their job search. Share with our listeners a few tips that you help them conduct a more fruitful.

job search versus the mundane, just going to indeed .com and filling out 20 applications in an hour. Well, that's something good that you mentioned there. Here is a big problem on a job search scene. And I'm a frame it this way to help the job seeker understand for those that are listening. I said this the other day, but I want to reiterate.

Job searching is a lot like fishing, right? If you have good bait, according to the time and circumstance, you'll catch a few fish. But the thing is, from time to time, if you're job searching, you may catch something, find something, if you will, that you can't do anything with. So what you may find may not be a good fit. But in those cases, you gotta keep pushing. But.

Good bait. We gotta figure out what that is for the job seeker. And the bait is strategy. How you as a job seeker approach your job search. So what many job seekers do is they ask us, how should I approach things? And one thing I tell them is to think of the process as a blend of marketing and sales. You thinking about putting your resume out on,

Indeed, monster, applying to roles directly. Think of the process as a blend of marketing and sales. The objective of your marketing copy, which is your resume and cover letter, is to market the product, which is you, to an interested buyer, the employer. Your marketing copy must paint you as the solution to their woes.

Deb Curtis (: 17:44

And when it's done strategically, an employer, they may bite or bring you in to learn more about you, you being the product. Now conducting research to ensure you hit on the paying points of the employer with you as the solution is key to closing that sale. So the resume and cover letter being the marketing copy, the interview being the sales meeting.

And you painting yourself as the one to be the solution to their walls. When you devise your strategy accordingly, you increase your chances of being able to land a deal as you see fit. Makes sense to me. And do you help your searchers match up their LinkedIn profile to their resumes? Cause I feel like employers are looking at our LinkedIn profiles today.

And I know they do when it comes to purchase financing a business, the underwriters, they're looking at that same resume, Kurtis, and they're looking at the LinkedIn profile. And just like you described, you got to have the good bait on the hook, similar to when you buy a business, that your resume shows you have that industry experience and the management experience.

And sometimes underwriters will look at a resume and then their LinkedIn is outdated and it doesn't even match. Oh yes. So share with me, you know, that that's important and, and you and your team take the time to pull all of those pieces together. Right? Yes, that's correct. So we do assist with matching the LinkedIn profile, um, to the resume. So we do let them know that it has to compliment one another. Yeah. Because.

It's that that's still a part of your marketing because if they go, just as an example, if you go and you're looking at to buy a phone and you look at one resource and the phone is being described one way with one price and you're going to another resource and you see the phone being described another way with a different price, you're going to feel some type of way like, wait, what's going on here? This messaging is not consistent, but when it comes down to the resume and LinkedIn profile, it's the same idea. Your message.

Kurtis Tompkins (: 20:03

what you're trying to obtain, it has to be consistent between the two. And I let them know if your LinkedIn profile is different from your resume, you can cause an issue for yourself. So yes, we do do the matching between the two and making sure that the message is consistent and making sure it's targeting the direction that they're trying to go. Yeah. And be careful what you're putting out there for your

posts reflecting what your character is. Oh, you see you take you take you take it as dead. You take it as dead. Oh man. Facebook, Instagram, Reels. Yes. Would you agree employers are looking at that? Would that be correct? 10 ,000%. I'll tell you this and I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna leave it at this. Um, I know of a situation that I can think of off the top of my head where.

And employee got themselves into some things that caused them to lose their job over social media. Yeah. I know it's, it's alive and well. When I was working for corporate, I had to be careful what I said online and they're, they don't want you, a lot of employers don't want you posting.

commenting in, I don't know what the rules are, but I guess the employer wins at the end of the day, right? Cause it's a, what do they call it at will employment? Yeah, definitely. I will. It's just, you know, being, it's being, being careful. And of course, many of us, we just have to read, you know, those handbooks, you know, read those handbooks and check out what, what, what's permissible, what's not permissible. And then like you said,

being careful and just strategic and how you do different things. That's right. Because it speaks to your character. Yes. Yeah. We talk about that in, in bank underwriting for loans character can be discovered. Um, Google reviews can tell you a lot about businesses and employers. Um, I'm sure you have stories there where maybe this isn't the employer that you want to.

Deb Curtis (: 22:28

apply at because of the reviews. Any, any good stories to share with us there? Well, when it comes down to it, um, I posted, uh, something not too long ago. I'll, I'll, I'll share it like this. There was a, there's a situation, um, that I shared up, I believe it was about maybe like two weeks ago, where a person applied for a job and when they applied for a job, they were to receive,

about a $35 ,000 increase in their salary. They applied to the job, everything went well. And when they received their first paycheck, they were excited about the amount of money that they were receiving. So when the next payday came, Crickets went to the appropriate persons to see what was going on with that. And after seeing what was going on with that, they saying, oh yeah, and it's not us, it's on your bank. Okay.

Reached out to the bank after going back and forth, the employer gave a check. Three days later, the check bounced. What the employee failed to do before getting involved, getting on interviews and doing all those good things was to check the background. And what the people would have showed her in the comments on Indeed and on these different places is that this...

organization had a history of not paying people their money. So when it comes down to, you know, sticking around for a long time after a short amount of time, these people quit too. So doing that research would be key to make sure that you don't find yourself in a situation. So that's the story that I shared that I thought that would be, you know, fitting for this time. It is fitting. Yeah, definitely. And, and,

When I lost my job, I had to go to indeed just to collect my unemployment benefits and there, the reviews of some of the employers was eye opening. I was, I thought, holy cow, but it, you know, people will put a review if they're not happy with how they were treated. Um, but then at the same token, we got to be careful that there are people that will pay for reviews and you can tell when it's, it's fluff, so to speak.

Kurtis Tompkins (: 24:54

um, paid for reviews because there'll be like a bunch of reviews in like a 60 day period, every three hours, five stars. And if you look beyond that, there's complaints and nothing, you know, or crickets, right? So it's a, it's a journey and experts like you and your team can help job seekers, those looking for a career change to understand, you know, where.

what things to look at to make sure that the grass on the other side is going to be green enough for them to sustain and be happy. Right? So, well, listen, I'm excited. Um, and I wanted to say to you, congratulations because job ready today was featured in a press release regarding your outplacement model that you've been advocating for employers to adopt.

outplacement services. And we know recently in the last year, if not a few years, there have been some massive layoffs abrupt out of nowhere. Nobody is safe. We can put up great production as an employee and find ourselves let go, you know, for expense reasons, whatever it may be. And

And what you're doing, I'll have you explain it, excites me because the typical feeling when you're let go and outplaced is, sorry, Deb, we're parting ways, turned off your computer, here's your Cobra, see ya. And now you're changing this and you're advocating. So share with our listeners, for anyone that's an employer, what this looks like.

Okay, awesome. So our new outplacement model is a solution for two major market challenges. So number one, many company employees impacted by a layoff, they won't receive outplacement support from their employer, something you just mentioned. They are left to foot that bill themselves with the money they really don't have, right?

Kurtis Tompkins (: 27:19

Some need this support as they have trouble devising a strong jobs or strategy. Okay. Number two, some employers want to offer outplacement services, but their number one concern is the cost. Many of them, they want to offer some type of support, but they can't afford it in some cases, right? So to get some insight on this real quick, it won't take too long.

Typical outplacement services are billed per employee with the lowest costs being around $500 per person. That's on the low end for the lower packages. So for a 100 person layoff, employers are looking at a $50 ,000 bill minimum, right? So considering these challenges, we decided to launch our web -based outplacement platform, and we call it the Career Cove Outplacement Platform.

where job seekers, they can find all of the tools to conduct a fruitful job search. So that includes comprehensive on -demand trainings with resources, quizzes and assignments to assess their knowledge. And of course we give feedback. Unlimited support, 24 -7, 365, a PWA mobile app, and more.

The win for employers is they can purchase a license to the platform at a one -time cost and send their employees for enrollment for years to come. So we got quality support for job seekers and a cost -effective one -time investment for employers. There's really nothing on the market that I found like it. So. I love it. I mean, and you are right. There is nothing on the market like it.

And any job where I was displaced, it was just a cold hearted feel. Even when you were a good employee and you did a good job, it just, you know, why, why, why as an employer just cut it off so cold and so abruptly? Because you never know, the business may turn around and these employees may come back if you took care of them the right way.

Deb Curtis (: 29:40

Correct. Right. So, um, I am, I'm so thrilled to know that the word is getting out and, and, um, you're impressed releases. I look forward to seeing you on interviews on TV because I think that day is coming. We have to do better, uh, as a country, when we displace employees, giving them other opportunities as the employer that displaced us.

Um, to help them further their career, but most importantly, keep a sufficient income, uh, supporting their family and not, you know, cutting them under their knees to the fact where they just are at risk of losing their homes and their cars and such. We got to do better. We got to do better. So yeah, I'm going to add a heart to that too. So thank you everyone. Um, and for Kurtis for leading the cause. And, uh, if you know any.

Employers out there, please pass on Kurtis's name and I'm sure you would love to talk to them about the outplacement service model that you have. I was blessed to get a tour of the platform online when Kurtis and I were talking a couple of weeks ago about this event and it's a very slick platform with a lot of training to help displace people. So, Kurtis, I want to just tell you from the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything that you do supporting job seekers, career folks that want to change. The opportunities are there and we don't know unless we create a voice and unite everyone like we do in events like this. So I just want to say thank you, Kurtis,

Deb Curtis (: 37:35

thank you for sharing your journey and Curtis, thank you, Curtis. No problem. Have a good one. You too. Bye bye.