 Aloha and welcome to another edition of Business in Hawai'i. I'm Deela Nyanagida and we are broadcasting live from the Think Tech studios in downtown Honolulu. If you want to tune in live, we are at www.thinktechhawaii.com. You can also sign up to get on our mailing list there as well. The theme of Business in Hawai'i is to bring you stories of local businesses by local people. And our guests share with us their journey to building successful businesses in a sometimes challenging environment. In the studios today is, sorry, Kathleen Lee, founder of Kathleen Lee Consulting. Welcome to the show and thank you so much for joining us. I have so many questions for you and I know that all of the information that you're going to provide us is going to be super helpful. And I wanted to start by you telling us about yourself and kind of rolling into how you got to Kathleen Lee Consulting. Sure. Well, Deela, first off, thank you for having me on the show today. So as you mentioned, I am the founder of Kathleen Lee Consulting. It's a career coaching resume writing company. So that came about because I love writing and I figured resume writing involves a lot of that. So I went to school for political science thinking I was going to be a lawyer. I interned for my local congressman and then somehow I ended up in hospitality. So I worked in hotels both in California and here in Hawai'i. And then I also ended up working with nonprofit organizations. And I have a background in public relations and communications as well. I think I mentioned to you over EMA that along with what I do, which is the consulting firm, I'm also a contract news reporter for the Filipino channel. So I've named all those and which makes the focus of my resume writing career coaching business government, hospitality, marketing communications and nonprofit kind of a lot. I figured coding in on what I know when it comes to resumes because I've been on both ends. I've interviewed for those positions and I've also interviewed people who want to go towards those sectors. And so I have a pretty good idea of what those particular industries look for. It's amazing how your experience is so wide, so broad and how you've decided to key into something, a space, a very specific niche resume writing and career coaching. And I think that probably a lot of folks don't even know that services like that exist. But before we go down that route, you know, it takes a special person to say, first of all, say, Hey, I'm not going to work for someone else anymore. I'm going to work for myself. And then of course, deciding what it is that you're going to do needs to share with us about how you how you made that decision. Sure. Going back to what you said, the biggest factor of me starting my own business was to have control over what I wanted to do, how I was going to do it and when I was going to do it. So when you have your own business, you do come up with your own schedule. You also go after your own clients. You come up with the little things like your logos, the colors that you're going to use when it comes to marketing or promoting yourself to people, the people that you're going to talk to. And I realized I had been doing that for, you know, the duration of my professional career. So I figured, why not do it for myself? If you're going to spend that much time anyway, why not invest in yourself and let people know like what you can do and what you can offer them to help them out? So that's how I started, you know, my own business. So was that scary? It was definitely scary. It still is. It still is scary, but I think that applies to anything that you do. Whether you decide to work for someone else or whether you decide to work for yourself, there's always that unknown portion. If you work for a company, for instance, it's going to be scary going for a promotion because you don't know what that position entails aside from the job description, but you just keep going and you always go back to why you want to do the things that you have set out to do. And for me, it's because I want to help people and I want to help them using what I know I'm good at, which is writing and identifying what people are good at and letting them know when reminding them. So tell me about the journey that you went through in standing up your consulting firm and deciding on your product line and how are you going to present that, who your niche market was, and then how you went out and got them. It took a while. Like with anyone starting out, you kind of have a rough draft. You have an idea of what you want to do, but at the same time, you'll learn through going through the process. So when I started, I wanted to be a consulting firm that offered assistance to the sectors that I had mentioned, government, hospitality, nonprofit, and communications. And even as I'm talking about it right now, that seems really general, like what does she mean by consulting? And on top of that, I figured, okay, because it's too general, I needed to compact it, make it so that people actually know what I'm doing. So the company actually went through various iterations. I went from a consulting company to now it's very specific. It's resume, writing, and career coaching. And that's not to say that those are the only two things that we do. We do everything that has to do with pursuing your career through the means of writing. So that's also cover letters. Career coaching and interview coaching. And a lot of that I pulled from my public relations background in which we had trained people how to go in front of the media, so media training, which is similar to interview coaching. Yeah, so that's that portion. And again, it had a lot to do with me doing trials and errors, trying to figure out which market to aim for. For me, I started with my peers, and then the word got out. And that's how I even met Johns Ranberg, who was on your show last week, who mentioned, hey, you should go one think-tack away to talk about what you do now. Absolutely. I know that everyone hears the title consulting, consultant, consulting, or firms. But what is that? I mean, how does a person know when they have something that could be consultative to someone else? Sure. So I think first and foremost, you have to have your intentions clear. Do you want to help people? And if you want to help people, how do you want to go about that? And then you have to take a step back and ask, be honest with yourself. What are you good at? What are your weaknesses? What can you work on? And one way to do that is to also draw from your peers, the people who know you best, and ask them, especially if you're starting your own company. You can ask your family, your friends. It could be a simple question like, hey, so what do you think I'm good at? I know this is an awkward question, but I want to see what you perceive of me. Because then you can work from there. And then, and again, draw from what you know you're good at. I guess you also need a brutally honest opinion. You do. You do with anything, even with your own business. And that's how I came about to resume, writing, and career coaching. I had a very good friend of mine that said, similar to what you said earlier, what exactly is consulting? What do you do? And in my head, I was like, I can do a bunch of things. But if I don't hone it down, if I don't pick something, people are always going to be asking that. So then I figured, I do resumes. I do resume writing. And I do that because I believe resumes are very personal. They're personal documents. Not only do people know where you live and what your phone number is, but resumes also demonstrate what you've been doing with your life the last 10, 15 years. Branding, if you will, right? So who hires a consultant? Is it an individual? Is it an organization? Is it a long-term relationship? Is it short? How does that work? All of the above they would. Individuals do it, especially if they feel like they need another set of eyes to look over what they do. Companies do it, especially if they're going through really challenging transition processes. They need someone to assist people who want to make the jump from this particular company to whatever industry they want to go into after. Long-term, short-term, again, it's a bit of both. Sometimes people just want to have their resume edited once, and then they run with that. Other times, people see the value and having the resumes edited every couple of years, especially if they feel like they've gained new skills or new job experiences. So how would an individual pick Kathleen Lee consulting to be that consultant of choice? Ooh, that's a great question. So the way I approach people is I don't really, I don't sell them and say, hey, how's your resume? Do you need it to be edited? I talk to them and see where they are in their career path. And if I feel like they may need my services, I offer what I can do. By the way, I'm able to look over your resume. I've known you for a while so I can see what your strengths and things that you need to work on are. And the fun part to that is highlighting what people are good at, because a lot of times, people get caught up in thinking that what they do isn't outstanding. I know I've done so many resumes where I'll ask people, like, what are you most proud of? And then they'll say something like, oh, I was, here's a real example from one of the resumes that I did. I was the only female in my class. And when we graduated that particular course, and I was thinking, well, why is that not on here? So you could put that on your resume and I remind them of that. When people get promoted within a year or less than a year, they don't see that as outstanding. And I do, because it takes a while for a company to have faith in you and say, we are going to put you in a leadership position. So I tell people, put that on your resume, because when you go for your next job, they are going to look at that document and say, this person moves up because they absorb knowledge quickly and they are invested enough in the company to want to be one of the leaders, one of the movers. So I cheated a little bit. And I did speak with someone whose resume you did. And that's exactly what they said, was that she took the time to get to know me so that the resume, that finished product, really reflected who I was and my accomplishments. And sometimes for people, it's hard for them to talk about themselves. So the feedback was that she was able to capture that and put that into words and then onto paper. I have so many questions for you, selfishly. I have so many questions for you. But we do have to take a short break. When we come back, I'd love for you to talk about the types of people that come to you for resume writing or career coaching and at what stage in their lives they're at. I think that's really interesting. So we'll take that short break. This is business in Hawaii. We will see you back here shortly. Aloha and welcome to At the Crossroads. I'm your host, Keisha King. You can catch me every Wednesday, live at five. I'll see you there. Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. My show is based on my book, also titled Beyond the Lines. And it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, and finding greatness. I interview guests who are successful in business, sports, and life, which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness. Join me every Monday as we go Beyond the Lines at 11 AM. Aloha. Welcome back to Business in Hawaii. Joining us today is Kathleen Lee, founder of Kathleen Lee Consulting. And you are such a dynamic personality. And to be honest with you, if someone were to write my resume, I'd want your personality on my resume. But thanks again for joining us. I want to ask you, what types of people come to you and say, hey, write my resume? Is it someone that just graduates from college? Is it someone who's mid-career, changing careers, end of career? When does that happen? Just as I mentioned earlier, it's all of the above. But mostly people who are mid-career and changing their careers and in positions of leadership where they want to go from A to B. Right now I am also working on getting people who just graduated from college. I want to be able to help them out. There's a lot of times I feel like that particular niche may feel like what they have is not enough. And so for that type of format, I'll put the education in the front part of it so people can look and see where this person just came from and where they want to head. One of my favorite things to work on are people who, resumes actually, resumes of people who are looking to transition from one sector to another. A lot of times people feel like just because they don't have experience in a particular industry means that they're not qualified. So what I do is I help them connect the dots. What is it that you like about this future industry that you are aiming for? And what is it about what you're doing now that has something in common with what that industry is looking for? So as an example, I did a resume of an individual who had a law enforcement security background and they wanted to go into pharmacy. So that's, on a very superficial glance, that seems like a very big leap. But so what I did with hers was connect the dots. What is it that law enforcement and pharmacy have in common and one of them is being very detail oriented. You have to know certain laws and regulations when you're in law enforcement. It's the same with pharmacy. You also have to watch out where decimal points are when it comes to prescriptions. So I tied that in and again, it's also like a front facing type of sector. So I made sure to highlight that on this person's resume. So I've been doing that. There was also another example where someone wanted to go from hospitality to healthcare. So again, identifying like what those two industries have in common, which is helping people out. If you're in the hospitality industry, you are, I like to say this all the time because that's a large portion of my background. You have to be a nice person to work in hospitality and you have to be patient, to be very patient. So, and it's the same with healthcare because now you're dealing with people that are coming to you and not because, well, sure, like a lot of them come in when they're well, but they also come to you because they need something. There's something going on that they have a question about when it comes to like their health. So tie those in and that's what I did with that particular resume. And so that person is now working in the healthcare industry. Wow, it's an art. You're an artist with words. That's what you are. You're an artist. So career coaching that seems to go hand in hand. With the resume, right? But doesn't the career coaching come before the resume or does it come after the resume? A bit of both, again. Sometimes someone will come to me with the resume and I'll look it over and there may be some ambiguous things on there. And then I have to ask them like, where do you wanna go? And then the career coaching comes after that. Other times someone will say, can you help me figure out what to do or how to present myself in this particular interview? So then I'll do that and then the resume comes along with it. So it really, like you had mentioned, it comes hand in hand. So sometimes people will just offer one and or the other, but for the most part people do like coming to me for both. So how long does that, does the career coaching engagement last? Sure, it depends on the person. Sometimes it could be like one session. Other times it could be a couple. It depends on what the person's needs are. A lot of times it's just something as simple as interview coaching. And then there are other times when it's about like identifying what they wanna do. Because sometimes I know people have come to me and have said, oh, I wanna be a life coach. And I have to go, okay, do you know what that means? And what do you wanna do with that? And maybe life coach wasn't the particular career they were looking for, but instead someone who helps people out in a way that is a little bit different from like going out there and being like that rah-rah person. So when I started digging deeper into what that person wanted, I realized that was not what that person wanted to do. She didn't want to be out there. She didn't wanna be like, hey, let's do this. But instead she wanted to help people in a heartfelt way. And so on my end too I researched certain job openings that may be of interest to them. Wow, so you also kind of do placement in a roundabout way. In a roundabout way. And I don't wanna say that I do that firmly. I feel like individuals such as yourselves, HR professionals are more versed in that. For me it's just a matter of, hey, by the way, there are these openings. Have you considered those? So interesting. So in the world of resume writing and career building, I mean, is there a time where as that consultant you have to say, hey, I don't think that's the direction for you? Or do you really try to channel someone's passion as to what they really think they want to do? Another question. As much as possible, when I set out with my company, I wanted for people to be passionate about what they do. And in order for them to do that, they had to identify what their passions were. So if I am able to align that, then that's what I'll do. Okay, so another question about resumes. Are they timeless pieces, classics, or does a resume, is it subject to what's fashionable or what's trendy? Wow, that's a good question. Well, it depends. I would say it needs constant updating. A resume that you may have had in 1985 or 1990 may not work the same as now. And that's because trends are changing. One trend that I have seen. Well, I don't wanna say trend because I don't wanna give the impression that it's going to go out of style. But one element that resumes have added is color. People go back and forth with that. Some people believe that adding color to your resume may seem unprofessional. I go the opposite way. I feel like color can be valuable, especially when recruiters or individuals who are looking through resumes want something that popped out. My tip to that is use dark colors. If you do use color, make sure you have enough confidence to back up your wonderful, colorful resume. And also make sure they are able to be, the actual document can be printed in a way that still can be seen. So no yellows, no oranges. Well, you are so kind to share some tips with us. And I know that you've also prepared to share more tips with us. Sure, I'm gonna bring up a slide that you prepared for us. If you could bring up the first slide, Kathleen's gonna share with us some tips on the resume writing do's and don'ts. So the first one is keep your email address simple. Use your name. You would think that people know this, but sometimes they don't. They feel like, okay, I'm going to use my personal email address, which is what I recommend anyway. Try not to put whoever you're working for is email address on there, because that email address is going to disappear once you move forward. But when I say keep it simple, make sure it has your first name and your last name. Or at the very least your name, because then it makes people look it up easier, especially if they're in their emails and trying to search you. Numbers, I wouldn't really recommend it, especially if it's the year of your birth, because a lot of times, people will look at it and if you're, I don't know, Anne-Marie, 1978, people will be like, okay, I know how old this person is. And I think we had talked about this earlier. A lot of times, some people, while they don't want their innate biases to kick in, they'll be like, hmm, okay, so how is this person going to function? Like in this particular job, will they know this and that? So try to keep it simple. First name, last name. Right, we also have some resume writing don'ts. Let's take a look at those. So this I already mentioned, like no silly emails, cool guy forever, a beer for me. I think I was just thinking of happy hour for a beer for me. It's not necessary to repeat contact info on multiple pages. And I've seen that a good amount of times. And I get it, you should repeat your header, but not on your resume. You can do it on your cover letter, but not on your resume. The people who are looking through your document are not careless enough to be like, well, here's the first page, I'm going to get rid of the second page. So that's also a good tip that people should note. And I see this a lot and I know you have as well, where people put on the bottom, references available upon request. So something like that already takes up a line. They should be available, and you don't need to say that. You could take that line out and either use it for something else that could add value to your resume. So adding that is, it's almost redundant. The last point that I had put on there was to not downplay your leadership experience and skills. And this is what I had mentioned to you earlier. When people are looking at your resume, they're not looking for someone who know how to do the very basic things. Like if I'm hiring for a particular position, I want the person that's the best for that particular position. So if you're just repeating things that are on the job description, you are not going to stand out. So think back to what your experiences are and pull through what made you stand out? Did you do accounting? How did you do it well? Were you efficient? Did you come up with some sort of system that made things faster, that made people understand that if you decided to go away from that company, that particular program or model would still be there. So I encourage people to pull through what they have leadership experience and when it comes to their background. I knew we were going to run out of time and I've got so many questions for you. Real quick, so what about social media? Social media, so my rule of thumb is, make sure what you put out there is something that you would be comfortable saying in an interview. I have a tendency to Google myself occasionally just to make sure whatever is out there that people can look up on me isn't going to hinder my professional career or how people perceive me. And we need to keep that in mind because people are on social media a lot of times, almost all the time. So we just have to be very careful about what we put out there even if it's what we think are innocuous photos. It could be misinterpreted by someone as something that's detrimental or offensive. I have so many more questions for you. Tell our viewers how they can find you. Sure, so my website is cathleenleaconselting.com. There is a form on there that they can fill out and reach out to me. And you could also email me at info at cathleenleaconselting.com. Fantastic, resume rebuilds. Are they okay for someone who's retired and looking for the retirement job? Yes, absolutely. And again, like a resume is a document that reflects who you are now, what you want to do, where you want to go. So I always advise for people to have it on hand regardless of how old you are. Even if you're a 16-year-old student looking for a part-time job or a retiree, that resume could help you get on a board if you want to make a difference in the community that way. Or if you want to take on a part-time job that may be related to what you were doing before you got retired, people need to see that document because it's a reflection of who you are, who you were, and what you can do for whatever company you're applying for. Fantastic, thank you so much for joining us. I had such a good time and I wish we could keep you here for another three hours. Thanks. Unfortunately, we are out of time. I wanted to thank Kathleen for taking the time to share her story and, of course, the wonderful tips that we stole from her. And a very big thank you to the amazing production staff here in Think Tech Studios. If you would like to be a guest on our show, please feel free to email your information to shows at thinktechhawaii.com. Business in Hawaii airs every Thursday at 2 p.m., and we look forward to seeing you here next week.