0:00

Have you ever wondered how one's personal journey

0:02

intertwined with relentless passion

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and a pivot at a crossroads? Can

0:07

lead to discovering your true voice

0:09

and purpose. Today we are

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chatting with one of LinkedIn's most famous

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personal branding voices, Melissa

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Cohen, who is an inspiration

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to anyone looking to stand out

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as a thought leader. Today, Melissa

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is going to talk with us about her transformative

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experience that came out of the pandemic.

0:28

And how these challenges led her

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to leverage LinkedIn, not just

0:32

as a job seeking platform, but as

0:35

a launch pad for her voice and

0:37

her brand. Melissa story

0:39

is a true Testament to resilience,

0:41

adaptability, and the power of

0:43

finding your voice in the most unexpected

0:46

of places. You are

0:48

listening to the glass ceiling and sticky

0:51

floor podcast. The podcast

0:53

that will empower you to shatter limiting beliefs

0:55

and toxic behaviors. To uncover

0:57

infinite possibilities so that you

1:00

can live your best life. I'm

1:02

Erica Rooney and I'm on a mission to bring more

1:04

women into positions of power and keep

1:06

them there. I'm obsessed with all things,

1:09

growth and abundance. And I'm here to

1:11

talk you through the tried and true secrets

1:13

to get you to level up your career and

1:15

your life. We talk about the hard stuff

1:18

here. Imposter syndrome, perfectionism,

1:20

fear and burnout. So pull up

1:22

a seat, pop it into your bed. And

1:24

let's dive in. Today

1:27

we have with us one of LinkedIn's top

1:30

personal branding voices

1:32

and she is the owner and founder of

1:34

NBC Consulting Solutions. So

1:36

Melissa Cohen, welcome to the podcast

1:39

how are you today? Thanks so much,

1:41

Erica. It's great to be here. Thank you for having

1:43

me. I love it. I couldn't

1:45

be more grateful for your time, being

1:47

able to learn from you and just learn more

1:49

about you and who you are.

1:51

So I'd love to just hear from the jump.

1:54

Who is Melissa Cohen? Yeah,

1:56

sure. Um, and this is the first time we're sitting

1:58

down and talking so super excited. Nice

2:01

to finally meet, um, almost face

2:03

to face virtual face to face. Um,

2:05

yeah, so I, I work in the fashion

2:08

industry. It is what I have always

2:10

wanted to do. I remember the day

2:12

that I was in high school, and

2:15

someone came to speak with all

2:17

of us from a fashion school in New York City

2:19

and I said, Oh, I

2:22

can do this for a career. Well, that's really

2:24

exciting, right? Because I was that kid

2:26

who always was making little outfits for my

2:28

Barbie dolls. I was always eagerly

2:31

awaiting the September issue of Vogue, right?

2:33

It was like the size of the Yellow Pages. I'm completely

2:35

aging myself there. People are probably like, what's the

2:38

Yellow Pages? Um, but it was a very,

2:40

very thick, uh, issue every September.

2:43

So I just loved fashion, right? Um,

2:45

and so that's what I did. I had a very traditional

2:48

corporate career in fashion for many,

2:50

many years. I worked for some, you know, pretty

2:52

well known major American

2:54

fashion brands, and then the pandemic

2:57

happened. And I don't think

2:59

there was an industry that was unscathed, but

3:01

for sure, um, fashion was

3:03

hit pretty hard, right? No one was

3:06

buying clothing because no one left

3:08

their house. Um, if you made yoga

3:10

pants, you might've been in good shape, but

3:13

Other than that, you were in for a really hard time. And

3:16

so I very transparently,

3:19

you know, I lost my job. And when

3:21

I was looking

3:23

for a new job full time, I

3:26

had some tough experiences

3:28

and I decided to pivot and

3:30

I started my own consultancy

3:34

where I work with, you

3:36

know, different brands on product

3:38

development, production, manufacturing

3:40

and sourcing, all the things that I love to do. And

3:43

it was. Different, but it

3:45

was also really exciting, right?

3:47

All of a sudden I could potentially

3:50

work on a couple of different types of product. I

3:52

wasn't necessarily pigeonholed just

3:54

in one particular thing. So it was really

3:56

fun. I learned a lot. I met

3:58

a whole bunch of interesting people and

4:01

I would say it was something that I

4:04

never thought I would do. If you would have told me

4:06

that I wouldn't, you know, have

4:09

just immediately gone back to a full time

4:11

corporate role and that I would have started my own business,

4:14

I would have. Said you were completely crazy.

4:16

So, um, in a way, really

4:18

proud of myself. Right. I did something different. Oh

4:21

my gosh. Yeah. And

4:24

then the other thing that came outta the pandemic, um,

4:27

which is partially why we're here, right, is

4:29

I discovered LinkedIn. So

4:32

I have had a LinkedIn account because

4:35

I went back and looked, uh, since

4:37

2008. But

4:39

the first time I ever really

4:41

engaged was 2020. Um,

4:44

and I'm not going to lie. It was initially because I

4:46

said, Oh my God, I'm going to need to find a job.

4:49

And I need to leverage LinkedIn

4:51

because that's what LinkedIn is for, right? It's for finding

4:53

a job. And I came to

4:55

realize it is for so

4:57

much more than finding a job. And

5:00

it really helped me to find

5:02

my voice. And figure

5:05

out who I am, what I want,

5:07

what I want to do. And

5:09

it's even become something where I help other

5:11

people do that. Because people

5:13

started to approach me and say,

5:15

Oh my God, I really love what

5:17

you're doing on LinkedIn. How can

5:20

I do that? How can I do that too? And

5:23

so it's really just been, uh, it's

5:26

been a few years and it's just been a really interesting

5:28

journey. And, uh, I think it's

5:30

proof that you can do things that you never

5:32

thought of when the opportunity arises. Absolutely.

5:37

Absolutely. And I'm gonna go deep

5:39

real quick here with you, right? Like

5:41

time is of the essence, so we're not gonna go,

5:43

we're not gonna, you know, fluff

5:45

around it here. When you lost

5:48

your job, and so many people did,

5:50

and so many people still are, right? We are not

5:52

in a great place from an economy standpoint. So

5:54

many people are, you know, in

5:56

transition right now or having hard times

5:58

finding jobs. What

6:01

was that initial? Fear

6:04

for you because I'm sure there was a lot of like the

6:06

sticky floors that we talk about inside

6:08

of there because you had been working with some very

6:11

iconic brands for over

6:13

a decade. If you look at her

6:16

LinkedIn, you can tell which one we're talking about here, but

6:18

she had been there for a long time, y'all.

6:21

What were those initial emotions and feelings

6:23

that you felt? Yeah,

6:25

so I mean, I'm, I'm not gonna

6:28

lie. I don't think I

6:30

realized how much of my own self

6:32

worth and self identity

6:34

was tied up in my job. Until

6:36

I didn't have it anymore. And

6:38

I think that was one of the biggest,

6:43

I don't know, unlocks, revelations,

6:45

revelations is probably a good word. I

6:48

didn't realize it. You know, I

6:50

think when you're in it every day, you're just

6:52

in it and you're not thinking about

6:54

that. And then when all of a sudden I

6:57

could no longer be identified as

6:59

working at this, you know, iconic,

7:01

incredible brands that I loved, I

7:03

loved the brands, loved the brands,

7:06

loved the product. And.

7:08

People associated that with me.

7:11

I had, you know, my whole wardrobe. Which

7:14

I also wasn't wearing anymore because I wasn't going

7:16

anywhere anymore. Um, it,

7:18

it really made me realize that

7:21

I felt that I had lost a piece of myself.

7:24

And I didn't know who I was if I couldn't

7:26

say that I worked

7:28

at Ralph Lauren anymore. Right? That

7:31

was a huge part of who I was. And

7:34

so I think that was really a

7:36

shock to me. So

7:39

this process of finding yourself, again,

7:42

Right and reestablishing yourself.

7:45

What did that look like for you? So

7:49

it was hard because

7:51

I live in New York City and

7:53

I do not

7:55

in any way minimize the

7:58

effects that the pandemic had on anyone

8:01

in the U. S. or elsewhere. But

8:03

New York City was hit really hard. We

8:06

had very severe lockdowns.

8:08

We had a very high rate

8:10

of infection and a really high rate

8:13

of people dying and It

8:15

was a tough time. You know, the

8:17

highlight of my day was putting

8:19

on a mask and putting on gloves and going

8:21

to the grocery store because I needed food. Um,

8:24

that was exciting because I got to leave my apartment.

8:27

Um, and you know, all the, the things

8:30

that we kind of laugh at now, you know, wiping

8:32

down the groceries with Lysol wipes.

8:34

I mean, if you could even get Lysol wipes, um,

8:37

you know, I was doing all of that. And

8:39

so it was definitely a tough, a

8:41

tough time. And. That

8:44

is really where I leaned into LinkedIn,

8:47

and I started to find

8:50

a community there and build

8:52

a network there. It wasn't

8:55

just reaching out to people

8:57

to find a job. It was

8:59

reaching out to people because I really

9:01

kind of just craved that connection

9:04

and that human interaction. Um,

9:07

and so many people were in the same boat, right?

9:09

And that is definitely a time that LinkedIn

9:12

became a little less.

9:15

Just job search and

9:17

a little more telling

9:20

your personal story, sharing

9:22

who you are talking about things that were going

9:24

on in your life, you know, I think way

9:27

back when you used to get a lot of, you

9:29

know, this isn't facebook kind of comments

9:31

and it's still not facebook, right? Um,

9:34

and I don't think it should be. I think it should

9:37

remain exactly what it is, which is a professional

9:40

platform, a platform for networking

9:42

and professional conversations. But

9:45

I don't think that that means that we can't talk

9:47

about who we are and what

9:49

matters to us and what our values are.

9:53

I love that you pointed that out because I

9:55

have been racking my brain for the last few days.

9:57

I don't know why it's been bugging me so much, but I've been

9:59

trying to figure out when LinkedIn

10:02

became, like, less jobsy. And

10:05

more social. And it is. It's

10:07

social media. And

10:09

one of the things that I tell a lot of the women

10:11

that I talk to and work with is, Yes,

10:14

it is a professional platform, but

10:16

it is your social media.

10:18

And I don't know if you run into this with

10:20

the people that you work with, but

10:23

do you get a lot of people who hesitate to

10:27

Kind of explore what

10:29

it looks like to post on LinkedIn

10:31

and interact on LinkedIn outside

10:34

of their job bubble. Yeah,

10:37

I think absolutely. I think there is still

10:40

some of that sort

10:42

of old LinkedIn mentality.

10:44

Like I joke about it, you know, like LinkedIn

10:47

2015 or LinkedIn

10:49

2018, um, and the

10:51

platform has definitely evolved since

10:53

then. And I think there's just fear in general,

10:55

right? I think people are afraid

10:58

to put themselves out there. The one

11:00

thing that I love, so I'm

11:03

not on any social media besides LinkedIn. I,

11:05

you couldn't pay me to be on Twitter, X.

11:09

Whatever it is, whatever it is. I don't

11:11

know what you call a tweet now. And if it's an

11:13

ax, um, I have never

11:15

been on Facebook. What I appreciate

11:18

about LinkedIn is you have to use your real name

11:20

or at least you certainly should. It's

11:24

not the trolling

11:27

kind of place that social

11:29

media is. Yes, you're going to still get people that make

11:32

comments that upset you, and you're still going to see

11:34

things that, you know, you're going to want to remove

11:36

from your feed. And that's just life. But

11:39

you're not hiding behind a screen name.

11:41

And people, if you post

11:44

something, people know that

11:46

you're posting it. And so that's good and bad, right?

11:48

For some people, that's really scary. It's

11:51

really scary to put yourself out

11:53

there and to say what you think

11:55

and to let people know what your opinion

11:58

is on something. And so I get a lot of

12:00

that, too, where people are like, oh, I could never,

12:02

I could never do that. I could never post on

12:04

LinkedIn. But I felt that way, too. The first time

12:06

I posted something, I felt So

12:09

sick after I did it, and so

12:11

worried, what are people going to say, people are going

12:13

to laugh, or oh no, I'm going to get no reactions

12:15

at all, it's just going to like sit there like

12:17

sinking like a stone, and nobody's going to react

12:20

to it, and nobody's going to comment on it, and it's

12:22

just going to be horrible. And

12:24

it wasn't. I mean, did it go viral?

12:27

No. It certainly didn't. It was actually a horrible post.

12:29

It was terrible. But

12:32

it got, you know, some reactions. One

12:34

very kind soul reposted it. I got a couple

12:36

of, I think I got one or two comments. And

12:39

I survived. And then I

12:41

just went from there. And so

12:43

I always tell people that first, first step,

12:46

like anything else, is the hardest. You

12:48

should totally take that first post and take

12:51

a screenshot of it and put it on your website

12:53

today to be like, go from this. to

12:56

this before

12:59

and after. I love it because

13:01

it's so true. The first time you do anything, it's not

13:03

going to be great. You know, it's going to be weird.

13:06

It's going to feel weird. It's going to feel uncomfortable,

13:09

but like you do it and you show up and you get a little

13:11

bit better every day. And now this

13:13

is where you thrive. It's

13:15

really fun for me. Like people think

13:17

I'm crazy. It is really fun

13:19

for me every morning and every

13:22

evening. I. I mean,

13:24

with some exceptions, obviously, if you have a life, but

13:26

you know that that's how I like to

13:28

spend a little bit of my time. It's, it's

13:30

a fun, fun place

13:33

and very supportive. Again, a

13:35

different kind of social media. It's a very

13:37

supportive community. When

13:39

you find your people. So

13:42

true. All right. I'm going to take us a little

13:44

bit back in time now, but I

13:46

want to pose this question for both

13:48

your corporate career, because you were a VP,

13:51

you were climbing ladders and shattering ceilings,

13:54

but also in your

13:56

life now as a business owner and a founder,

13:59

when you think about sticky floors, those

14:01

limiting beliefs and toxic behaviors that keep women

14:03

stuck, are they

14:05

different for you in

14:07

corporate versus entrepreneurship?

14:11

Or do you feel like they show up this, like,

14:13

it's the same one that shows up,

14:15

but it shows up differently? I'd be interested

14:17

to know. Yeah,

14:19

that's a really good question. I

14:22

think they're the same, right? Because I'm the same

14:24

person, and I

14:26

think, I like the term sticky

14:29

floor. It's actually really, it's really brilliant.

14:31

Sticky? It's really sticky? It

14:34

is. It's sticky and catchy.

14:37

I think those sticky floors are very

14:39

similar for a lot of people. I think.

14:42

Many of us, especially as women, find

14:45

the same ones over and over again, right?

14:47

So many women, some

14:49

of the most accomplished, successful women

14:52

that I know, they have imposter

14:54

syndrome, or they have had it. They

14:57

have a lot of self doubt. They

14:59

have a lot of fear of

15:01

the unknown. I think

15:04

Those themes are very universal,

15:07

and it doesn't necessarily depend

15:09

upon what you're doing so

15:12

much as that it's just, that's a part of life.

15:14

I think that's part of human nature, and

15:17

we have to just sort

15:19

of rewire our thinking, and

15:23

the only way to do that, I believe,

15:25

is just push forward. If

15:28

something scares you, that's okay.

15:31

You can do something that scares you.

15:35

It doesn't have to stop you. And

15:38

when you think about your, your

15:40

life, you, who Melissa

15:42

is, what were those sticky floors for

15:45

you? Definitely

15:48

had a lot of that

15:51

sort of imposter syndrome or that

15:53

self doubt. Um,

15:56

I think As women, especially,

15:58

it can be really hard, right? We always

16:02

The fashion industry is great, right? Because there's

16:04

a lot of women. It's a very

16:06

female heavy industry,

16:09

but really only up until a certain level.

16:12

When you get to the upper echelons,

16:14

when you get to the C suite, you're

16:17

still looking at a much, much

16:19

higher percentage of men. And

16:21

I think that that imposter

16:24

syndrome is always

16:26

with us. It

16:28

gets easier as you see more women

16:30

succeed, and it gets easier

16:33

as you sort of, you

16:35

have to break through your own self limiting beliefs,

16:37

right? You have to just say, you

16:39

know what? That's not reality. That's

16:42

just my mind

16:45

saying something that isn't true. And a lot

16:47

of us have that. A lot of us have

16:49

those fears. I

16:52

wish there was some magic button that could just make

16:54

them go away. But for me, that magic

16:56

button is just saying, Oh, it's sort of just

16:58

acknowledging that that fear is there. I'm

17:01

just saying, okay, I

17:03

have that fear. And you know what, I'm going to prove it wrong.

17:05

I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to try this. And you know

17:08

what, if I fail, that's okay, too.

17:10

Not everything that you do is going to be smashing

17:13

success, you're not going to get accolades for every

17:16

risk that you take. But

17:19

A lot of them are going to pay off and every

17:21

time you try something, even if it's

17:23

not successful, you

17:25

learn something from it and you can do it better

17:27

next time. All

17:29

right. You sound like you're pretty good at accepting

17:32

failure. I am not. So

17:36

tell me more about this. Is that true? Or

17:38

are we just like, we are, we

17:40

are acknowledging that failure. We're still going

17:43

forward anyways. Failure

17:46

sucks. I mean, I'm not like,

17:48

I'm not pretending. It's like, yes, I failed. That's

17:51

awesome. Um, it's,

17:54

it, nobody wants to fail. Nobody likes

17:56

to fail. But I think also

17:58

it depends on the environment that

18:00

you're in and what, what risk are you taking? I'm not

18:02

saying go out there and do something crazy. I'm

18:05

not saying take your life savings and invest

18:07

it in, you know, well, if you'd invested

18:09

in Bitcoin, maybe I was, I

18:11

don't know why Bitcoin was in my head

18:14

too, but it was, but

18:16

I'm not saying to do something, you know, super

18:18

risky that, you know, has horrible

18:21

ramifications if it goes wrong, but

18:25

don't be afraid to try any things, you

18:27

know, putting a, putting a post out on

18:29

LinkedIn when you're frightened to do it is,

18:31

is not going to, If

18:34

it bombs, nothing terrible is going to happen

18:36

to you. Um, you

18:38

know, trying something new

18:41

at work with

18:43

minimal risk. You have to pick your battles,

18:45

right? Don't go out out of the gate and try something

18:47

crazy, but try something

18:49

new. If it doesn't quite work,

18:52

how can you tweak it? How can you fix that?

18:54

What other iterations can you try? What

18:56

other I think thinking outside of

18:58

the normal, you know, constraints of how we

19:00

work every day is something. More

19:03

of us should do more often. So I will tell

19:05

you, here's a perfect example. When

19:08

I was at, at Ralph, way

19:11

before the pandemic, we

19:13

had implemented, and I mean, not we, the company

19:16

had implemented flexible

19:18

work schedules. People

19:20

were working from different locations.

19:23

Everybody did not have to be in the office five

19:25

days a week. And when that first started,

19:28

it was crazy to us,

19:31

right? We were like, what do you mean? People can work

19:33

from home? What? That's

19:35

crazy. And people were

19:37

scared to do it because they were afraid it was

19:39

going to make them look bad. And

19:42

then we came to realize, actually,

19:45

we could be very productive working from home, right?

19:47

There were people who were commuting up to

19:49

two hours each way to get

19:52

to the office every day. So they were getting

19:54

three and four hours of their lives back, and

19:56

they could be so much more productive. They were so

19:58

much happier. That was

20:00

like a gift, a gift of time,

20:03

a gift of productivity, and

20:05

they were genuinely happier employees.

20:07

So I think we can always try new things. And,

20:10

you know, it wasn't perfect at first, right?

20:12

We had to figure out how do we make sure we had coverage

20:15

every day? Because what I do is very product based,

20:17

right? Like my role could, or my

20:20

comp, my portion of the

20:22

work could never be fully remote for

20:24

everyone. Someone has to physically be there, right?

20:26

We're touching products. We want to know how does

20:28

the fabric feel? How does it drape

20:30

on the body? Can you move in it?

20:32

Is the model comfortable? So

20:35

you have to have some physical presence. During

20:37

the pandemic, we did it virtually.

20:39

It was not ideal. And I would never say

20:41

that we should go back to being a hundred percent

20:43

virtual for what I do. So

20:46

at first it was tough, right? We had to make sure we had coverage,

20:48

that someone was physically in the office, that, you

20:50

know, urgent packages were getting opened,

20:53

that these fittings were happening. But

20:55

we learned as we went along, and it was wonderful.

20:58

People were genuinely thrilled. And then

21:00

suddenly everybody was on a remote

21:03

and hybrid schedule, right? Because we had no choice.

21:06

But it wasn't the norm back then. It was really,

21:08

it was something that we really found

21:10

revolutionary and that we had to fine tune

21:13

and do a few iterations of before

21:15

we got it right. Such

21:17

a good point. And I mean, you've just

21:20

totally opened up my mind to so many things I never thought

21:22

about when it came to working remote and different

21:24

industries with the fashion industry in

21:26

particular. But everything you said,

21:28

I was like, damn, that's, yeah,

21:31

you can't be, you can't be fully

21:33

remote doing that. So thank you

21:35

for sharing that. That's so interesting. Switch

21:39

gears to your

21:41

current expertise. And I say current

21:43

expertise because I feel like you have expertise in

21:45

so many different areas. But this is what

21:47

you are just on fire with right

21:49

now. And that's thought leadership. Why?

21:53

Why do we even care so much about

21:55

all this thought leadership today? No,

22:00

I think it's just more

22:02

important than ever to

22:05

have a voice. And

22:08

to use your voice and to be

22:10

known for something, right? Whether,

22:13

whether you want to find your

22:16

next corporate role,

22:18

whether you want to launch

22:20

your own business, whether

22:23

you want to find people

22:25

to collaborate with on

22:27

projects, whether you

22:29

want to be on podcasts. Whatever

22:33

your goal is, I think you

22:35

need to be known for something and

22:37

people are looking for

22:39

that. People want to find

22:43

subject matter experts and people

22:45

to educate them on things that they

22:47

don't necessarily know about, right?

22:49

Like, for me, I'm

22:52

fascinated both for the good

22:54

and for the bad with artificial

22:56

intelligence. Right? And

22:58

I am no expert in that, not

23:01

by a long shot. So I seek

23:03

out people who are,

23:06

there are people that I would, if you said, Melissa,

23:08

who should I follow on LinkedIn

23:10

to learn about artificial intelligence? I have

23:12

a name that would come to my head immediately. And

23:15

that's, that's powerful, right?

23:18

That's a powerful position to

23:20

be in. You become the subject

23:22

matter expert in it. Maybe you

23:24

write a book about it. Maybe you

23:26

have a podcast about it. Maybe

23:28

that becomes your job. People

23:32

really want to find people that

23:34

they can learn from. Yes.

23:37

And what I love, what I love

23:39

about thought leadership is. Historically,

23:44

when we were just all these little

23:47

individual contributors doing our jobs,

23:49

you know, going about the thing, busy bee workers,

23:52

we had thought leadership, but it was

23:54

only at the very tops of the ladder. And it was from

23:56

a very small defined

23:59

group of people. And let's be clear, mainly

24:01

a lot of older white men and

24:04

today's world, we're not living

24:06

in that anymore. And so all of the

24:09

hosts that we see on LinkedIn, and it's

24:12

It just opens up your eyes to

24:14

so many different perspectives

24:16

and it was almost like the world kind of throughout

24:19

COVID put their stamp on it that said we are

24:21

done listening to just one perspective.

24:24

What's your take on that? I think

24:26

that's an excellent point. I think we

24:29

do need diverse perspectives,

24:32

diverse in gender, diverse

24:34

in background, diverse in

24:36

the way we think, right? I've said

24:38

this a lot to people. I don't

24:40

want to live in an echo chamber, right? I don't want to

24:42

only talk with people who think exactly the way

24:44

I think, cause that's really boring. That's

24:48

also like the old LinkedIn, right? You only connected

24:50

with people who worked in your industry because

24:52

what else did you need anybody else for? Oh,

24:54

my God. How boring is that? I

24:56

think about all of the people that I've

24:59

met and connected with who are super

25:01

interesting, super knowledgeable, who I've

25:03

learned so much from. And yeah, some of

25:05

them absolutely work in my industry. A heck of

25:08

a lot of them don't. And so

25:10

I think that's super important that we have

25:12

very, um, diverse perspectives,

25:15

diverse backgrounds. And I think

25:18

that everybody has

25:20

something to teach people. Everybody.

25:23

Everybody has a story. Everybody

25:26

can learn from that story. Everybody

25:28

can learn from your experience, whether

25:30

it's your life experience, your work

25:32

experience, somewhere you've traveled

25:35

to, the possibilities

25:37

are really endless for what you can

25:39

speak about and what you can teach others about.

25:41

And there's a huge appetite for that. People

25:43

want to learn. Like there is a thirst

25:46

for knowledge today. And

25:48

I think part of that is because we

25:51

are craving that humanity.

25:54

As, as AI, as much as I think

25:56

it's interesting as AI

25:58

kind of permeates a lot

26:00

of what people are thinking about, I think

26:02

they're even more drawn to what they

26:04

know is real and what they know is human.

26:10

Do you think that's why the word of the year from Webster

26:12

Dictionary is authenticity? It

26:16

very well may be, yes. I,

26:19

I do, I do think that that's a, a

26:21

key reason, right? I, there's so much

26:24

chatter about About AI

26:26

and about, you know how what

26:28

we see may or may not be real. Um,

26:31

a lot of people are using AI for image

26:33

generation. I've played around with it a little

26:35

bit. I've gotten AI headshots done.

26:38

It's interesting, but

26:42

I think there, you know, it's a double edged sword

26:44

like everything else, right? People,

26:47

people want to learn from people.

26:49

People want to work with people. You

26:51

know, AI is not a new concept, right?

26:53

AI has been around for a really long

26:55

time. Hmm. Probably

26:58

much longer than we even realized. We've

27:01

interacted with AI. Like if you've ever

27:03

used one of those chat bots on,

27:05

you know, a website because

27:08

you need help with something. That's

27:10

AI, but it's just gone

27:12

to a whole other level now where,

27:15

you know, suddenly everyone is a chat GPT

27:17

expert and, you know, is using

27:20

chat GPT for everything. And

27:24

Thank goodness, I think for

27:26

now, it's still pretty

27:29

easy to tell when someone has used chat GPT

27:31

exclusively. I have no, no

27:33

issue with people using it to brainstorm

27:36

to, you know, fine tune things

27:39

to kick something off. But I always

27:41

tell people if they're going to use chat

27:43

GPT to write content,

27:45

for instance. Please don't

27:47

use that as your final, like that

27:49

should be your first draft at most. And

27:52

then you have to go in, you have to edit it.

27:54

You have to put it into your own voice because

27:56

nobody wants to talk to a robot. A

27:59

hundred percent. You have to actually humanize it.

28:01

You have to humanize it. Oh,

28:04

I love that. Well, Melissa,

28:07

one question I love to always ask everyone

28:09

on my podcast is if we had to go back

28:11

to the Melissa, who's the VP. Who

28:14

lost her job in the midst of the pandemic

28:16

with this crushing fear of what am

28:18

I going to do next? What would be that one piece of

28:20

advice you would tell her now? Trust

28:27

that everything's going to be okay. I

28:29

once had someone ask me if you were going to

28:31

write your autobiography, what would the

28:34

title be? And I was not given a lot of time

28:36

to come up with a good answer. And

28:40

what I just wrote down, like just word spew

28:42

was it all worked out in the end. And,

28:46

and I think that's the advice I would give.

28:50

To anyone like it

28:52

will be okay, and you don't have to have it all

28:54

figured out. You

28:56

can figure things out as you go along. Just get started,

28:59

right? Like, we always talk about the

29:01

first step being the hardest and, you know,

29:04

waiting for that perfect moment. And cliches

29:06

are cliches for a reason, right? Like, there

29:09

is no perfect time to start something.

29:11

So if you want to start something, just start.

29:14

Just do it. Figure

29:16

it out as you go. And, and trust

29:18

that it's going to be okay. My

29:22

favorite, uh, saying

29:24

about what you were just talking about is the

29:26

best time to plant a tree was 20

29:29

years ago. I think the second best

29:31

time to plant a tree is today. 100%.

29:35

Yes. I don't

29:37

think he's invented a time machine yet. No,

29:39

no, we're still working on that. We

29:42

haven't done that yet. But, Melissa,

29:44

if somebody wanted to work with you

29:46

and learn from you, because y'all, this woman

29:48

is on fire on LinkedIn. She

29:50

is a top. Branding

29:53

voice for a reason. Number

29:55

one, obviously go hit you up on LinkedIn, but

29:58

where else can they find you? Uh,

30:00

LinkedIn is absolutely the best place. I

30:02

do have a little mini website, which is

30:04

just melissabethcohen. com. Oh,

30:07

wonderful. Well, Melissa, thank you so much

30:09

for sharing your time, your expertise, and your story

30:11

from, you know, VP to business center

30:13

is so fascinating to me, but thank

30:16

you. Oh, thank you so much. It was really

30:18

a pleasure. As we wrap up this enlightening

30:20

conversation with Melissa Cohen, it's clear

30:23

that her journey from a corporate powerhouse

30:25

to a trailblazing entrepreneur and

30:28

a LinkedIn influencer is nothing short

30:30

of inspirational. Her

30:32

story reminds me that

30:34

within every single challenge. There's

30:36

always this opportunity for growth for

30:38

reinvention and her

30:41

expertise in navigating this personal

30:43

and professional transition,

30:46

coupled with her commitment to fostering.

30:48

True and genuine connections and thought leadership

30:50

on LinkedIn. It offers us

30:52

these insights that anyone who's

30:54

looking to carve their own path should really listen

30:57

to. So thank you, Melissa, for sharing

30:59

your journey for sharing your challenges and your triumphs.

31:02

And reminding us that if we are faced with

31:04

adversity, the most impactful thing

31:06

we can do is trust in

31:08

our journey. Take that first

31:11

step. Even if we can't see the end destination.

31:14

And embrace the journey. From

31:16

now to next. So don't forget

31:18

to connect with Melissa on LinkedIn

31:21

and visit her [email protected]

31:24

to continue learning from her incredible

31:27

journey and her insights. Now

31:30

until next time, remember this.

31:32

The only ceilings that exist

31:35

are the ones we place over ourselves. What

31:37

smashed through them together.