Episode 1001

Bonus Rob Barnett Next Job Best Job

Rob Barnett is a headhunter, management executive, author, podcaster, and entrepreneur. As founder of Rob Barnett Media, he has discovered, hired, and led hundreds of talented creators and executives in senior management roles at MTV, VH1, and Audible/Amazon. After a distinguished programming career, Rob was named President of Programming at CBS Radio before starting his firm.

A digital pioneer, he founded My Damn Channel, one of the first original online studios and networks. Representing diverse careers, companies, and opportunities, Rob's multi-platform content and no-nonsense approach inspire people to define and sell their best professional brand.

For radio people at any career stage, Rob's new book Next Job, BEST Job will save you months of wasted time surfing random job postings and uploading resumes into oblivion. His new process gives you the end-to-end tools to find the work you want. In this episode Rob shares highlights with us!

One Minute Martinizing explores Finding the RIGHT Job.

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Transcript
Rob:

Tell every candidate to outwork all the other candidates by doing

Rob:

a tremendous amount of homework on the company that you're pursuing.

VO:

Welcome to Brandwidth on Demand, your Guide to Rebooting Radio,

Rob:

and without even being asked for it, delivering a mountain of specifics

Rob:

about what that company is doing at the.

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Including free ideas to make it better.

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Just give it all away.

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I call it stealing second base

VO:

Brandwidth on Demand.

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Rebooting radio with a different take on all radio can be.

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Now your guides through the media morphosis.

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David Martin and author of the book, bandwidth Media

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Branding, coach Kipper McGee.

Dave:

Rob Barnett, while he is a head hunter, a management executive, an

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author, a podcaster, and an entrepreneur.

Dave:

As founder of Rob Barnett Media, he's discovered and hired and led hundreds of

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talented creative people and executives and senior management roles of mtv.

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Vh1, audible, Amazon.

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He was in fact, president of programming at CBS Radio, and he's a digital pioneer.

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He founded my damn channel, one of the very first original

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online studios and networks.

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He represents diverse careers companies and opportunities.

Dave:

Rob's multi-platform content and no nonsense approach inspires

Dave:

people to define and sell their best professional brand.

Dave:

Ran With On Demand is proud to.

Dave:

Welcome back Rob Barnett.

Kipper:

Hey Rob.

Rob:

Hey guys, thank you so much for doing this.

Kipper:

Hey, the pleasures all ours, Rob.

Kipper:

And apologies if sounds a little wonky today.

Kipper:

Problem on my end.

Kipper:

My bad, getting it fixed.

Kipper:

So question number one, Rob has gotta be what caused you to write next

Kipper:

job, best job, and to release it now.

Rob:

Well, that's an easy question.

Rob:

An agent found me on LinkedIn and.

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You need to write this book.

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And I said, will you sell it?

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And, and, and, and his immediate initial answer was yes.

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But to be truthful, I, I started this journey as a head hunter in June of 2018.

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So this gentleman found me.

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About a year into it in the summer of 2019.

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I make these short videos every single day about the topic of

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getting your next best job.

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And those videos appear on my website, but also of course, on all social media.

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So he found them in 2019 and he said, you gotta write this book.

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So I gave it my best.

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And your question is very, uh, insightful.

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I gave it my best effort in, uh, 2019, and they brought it to 20 of

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the biggest publishers in the world.

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They all wrote back these beautiful rejections and said, look, we

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love this guy's words on the page.

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We love his voice.

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We love the book, but they gave me this weird bookm publisher thing.

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They said his platform's not big enough.

Rob:

Mm-hmm.

Rob:

I mean, I don't have nine zillion uh uh, Instagram followers.

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Right, right.

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I put it up on the shelf and said, this'll come back another day.

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Then in of course, March of 2020, when we all got locked

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down, the agent called back and.

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Now we can sell this book.

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This is the greatest.

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This is the greatest moment of unemployment since the Great Depression.

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Let's retool it a little bit and I'll tell you the God's honest truth.

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The book sold quickly because it's sold with a Covid subtitle, and the minute

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they bought it, I said, please, please.

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I'm begging you like a dog.

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Can we not have a Covid subtitle?

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You like the book, but the book is not.

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You know, gonna last for six months.

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The book's supposed to last a lot longer and, and so that's

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the kind of journey of it.

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But it, it's really all along, been designed to do one thing and one

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thing only, which is turn the agony of losing your job into a focused.

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Purpose that gets you the right one.

Rob:

Yeah.

Kipper:

And it kind of proves your grandmother's five words,

Rob:

huh?

Rob:

Yes.

Rob:

I opened the book with Beloved Grandma Janie, who always said, when

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I asked, when is this gonna happen?

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When is this gonna happen?

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What's wrong?

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Why aren't things working?

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Grandma Jan would always say, You'll know when you know.

Dave:

Yep.

Dave:

You know, Rob, with the cutbacks that have been in the order of the day and

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broadcast, , but really ever since the ownership rules changed in the nineties,

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what are some simple steps that an outplace talent or manager should take

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to overcome the emotional crush of a job?

Rob:

Well, uh, you won't be surprised cuz we've known each other for a long time.

Rob:

Almost all this chapter titles are based on rock and roll

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songs that I love, so, right.

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The second chapter of the book is called Emotional Rescue.

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And an answer to your question, I did a list and there are

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11 survival steps in there.

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But really so many more that people need to get over that, as you say, the

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emotional crush of losing your job.

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I, I've seen some of my friends, even the most confident, successful people

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in the history of our business, just get brought to their knees by not just that

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initial firing, but then this horrible.

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Months and months and months of delay to try to get back in and find the next one.

Rob:

So I'll give you just two of the survival steps please.

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That, that we, we list.

Rob:

There are many more in the book.

Rob:

Let's talk about the one, the ugly one first.

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Ageism.

Rob:

Mm-hmm.

Rob:

I think that so many people have this terrible, terrible voice in their head.

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Which says, well, I'm screwed.

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They're not gonna hire me.

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I'm too old.

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And so there's much, much more in the book about this, but I'm telling you,

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this is a prison that we create ourselves, and the only way to break out of that

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prison is to outshine every other can.

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And stop thinking about freaking ageism.

Rob:

Mm-hmm.

Rob:

The minute you start obsessing about this idea, it's kind of like you've

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already thrown in the towel, you know?

Rob:

Yeah.

Rob:

And, and so it, it's like going on a diet right?

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Where you know you need to lose, in my case, at least 20 pounds, you know, you

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gotta stop eating that, eating that idea.

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You just gotta stop it and, and stop focusing on it.

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That's one, two, I call.

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The No police firing.

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The no police.

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I mean, Dave, you know, I'm obsessed with the punk musician, Amanda Palmer.

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And, and Oh yeah.

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She talks about the fraud police and, and I just think that there are so many voices

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in our head, even beyond ageism, saying, well, you can't do this because blank.

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Well, you can't do that because blank.

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You, you gotta just get all that shit out and off to the

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side so that you can really.

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Getting much more energized to do what it is, you know, you're capable of doing

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and you know you wanna do, so you gotta fire all that stuff outta your own head.

Rob:

Good advice,

Kipper:

good point.

Kipper:

So when you're looking at really, what are the essential job hunting

Kipper:

strategies, I mean, you've been a pd, you've been a corporate guy, you've

Kipper:

been an entrepreneur, radio leader, coach, bottom line, what separates top

Kipper:

candidates today from the also rans.

Rob:

That's a great question.

Rob:

Well, the also rans are doing the same job.

Rob:

Search skills that they've done for decades.

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The also rans have been told that a cover letter is supposed to say that

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I have 18 years of experience and a demonstrated history of success

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and a proven track record, getting readings and revenue and, and then

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after all that robotic blah, blah.

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The next part of the cover letter is this incredibly long repetition of everything

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that you're about to see on the resume.

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So one of the big strategies in the book is to tell every candidate to

Rob:

outwork all the other candidates by doing a tremendous amount of homework

Rob:

on the company that you're pursuing, and without even being asked for.

Rob:

Delivering a mountain of specifics about what that company is doing at

Rob:

the moment, including free ideas to make it better, just give it all away.

Rob:

And I call it stealing second base and, and, you know, and, and steal second

Rob:

base before the first pitch is thrown.

Rob:

Yeah.

Rob:

Because what I've been doing with candidates for the last year or so is

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if you write your ass off in that first letter, That says, hi, I'm Kipper.

Rob:

Uh, they're gonna interview you and every other cover letter's.

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Gonna say, I was number one in this market and I was number three in this market.

Rob:

I did.

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It's like deeply.

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They don't care.

Rob:

They care about what you can do for them right now.

Rob:

Yep, no doubt

Dave:

about it.

Dave:

You know, Rob, all the years I've known you, you've had a great

Dave:

reputation for building brands, but what's really interesting to me

Dave:

is that you've got this brand new thing going on where you're teaching

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people how to do personal branding.

Dave:

Now, what steps should any person be taking today, whether they're actively

Dave:

seeking a job or not, to present a good image and really build a personal brand?

Rob:

Well, the beauty of this.

Rob:

Mission to build your brand is that there isn't anybody stopping you.

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There's nobody preventing you from building your level of awareness, your

Rob:

level of engagement, and yet all the people that we've known all these years,

Rob:

it's just shocking to hear people say quietly and privately on the phone.

Rob:

You know, I just, I hate selling myself.

Rob:

People say it all the time.

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It comes up on, on every call.

Rob:

And you know, in the last presidential election, uh, you know, I just kept

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thinking about Biden cuz I had the honor of working with him in my last

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ever job, which was an audible and, and they paid him way tons of money.

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Put this last book out that he wrote for his son, Beau.

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And you know, I thought every day.

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Does he want to wake up at five o'clock in the morning and sell, sell,

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sell, sell, sell, and market, market, market market, maybe deep, deep down.

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Nobody does, but everybody has to.

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So I just really feel like you've gotta get up every morning, you've gotta brush

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your teeth, please, and then you've gotta spend a good, I don't know, five minutes.

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Making sure that you never miss a day without putting some real important

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professional content out on your social media of choice, and just don't ever

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miss a day because if you do it nonstop, then after X number of days, you are

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gonna build your level of awareness.

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To the point where that one person, you need to write that

Rob:

next check is gonna see it.

Rob:

They're going to get you and then you're, you're halfway home.

Rob:

So

Kipper:

let's talk about the other half of getting home.

Kipper:

Which is negotiating.

Kipper:

You offer some really powerful tips, which I think are going to be an

Kipper:

eye-opener, especially for radio folks who maybe have never been taught to ask.

Kipper:

So could you share just a couple of ways to advise clients and candidates

Kipper:

to hit that final point and get to

Rob:

Yes.

Rob:

Well, we dedicate chapter 10 of the book to my first general manager in

Rob:

radio, this beautiful, beautiful, brilliant soul named Steve Marks.

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We lost Steve a couple of years ago, and Steve became one

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of the great visionaries in.

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Customer selling in the radio business and then beyond the radio business.

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And he, he just had such a beautiful mind and, and a brilliant

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way of teaching people how to negotiate and how to get to, yes.

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So Steve has a book called, Closed, like the pros.

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I took my hat off, would love to his family and, and called Chapter 10, close

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like a pro, about as close as I can.

Rob:

Mm-hmm.

Rob:

There's a ton, there's a ton of, uh, of lessons in there

Rob:

that, that I've learned from.

Rob:

I guess, you know, that thing called the seventies till now?

Rob:

And, and, and the, the, the two things I'll.

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For 2021 just to get way current, you gotta have leverage.

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It's, it's extremely competitive.

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There's the industry's maybe never been in a tougher spot.

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So you gotta do everything humanly possible, not just to go for the one

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job that you want to get right now.

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You gotta go for two so that when you are at that final

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moment, and you know they want.

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You gotta have some leverage if you're really gonna be able to make a good deal.

Rob:

So I'm, I'm, I'm suggesting that people think really, really deeply about getting

Rob:

an alternative before they get to Yes.

Rob:

Mm-hmm.

Rob:

But then the last thing I wanna say about radio, I've been thinking about

Rob:

this in the last couple of weeks.

Rob:

You know, I've always been, let's say more on the content side than on

Rob:

the sales side and the revenue side.

Rob:

But if I was going for a content job in the radio slash audio slash all of what

Rob:

we love business, I would not have a single conversation about getting hired

Rob:

without making sure that I'm bring.

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Brand new revenue ideas to the table.

Rob:

I don't think we have the luxury of just being content people anymore.

Rob:

Excellent

Dave:

point.

Dave:

Great point.

Dave:

Happy to be with the always insightful.

Dave:

Rob Barnett.

Dave:

Hey, somebody you'd like to hear from.

Dave:

We'd love to hear your suggestions.

Dave:

Email us show@braylithondemand.com.

Dave:

They can join other great guests like Rub Le Christie from the

Dave:

Ruler and Ryan Show in Houston.

Dave:

Skip Dillard from W B L S in Hot 97 in New York City, and over 150

Dave:

others all in the previous episodes, wherever you downloaded this.

Kipper:

There's still time.

Kipper:

If you really want to up your game this year, there's still

Kipper:

time to register and attend.

Kipper:

Morning Show Bootcamp.

Kipper:

You can hear from all the people Dave has mentioned along with folks like

Kipper:

ihearts, John Zelner, Justin Chase from Beasley Hubbard's, Greg Strassel.

Kipper:

Just click over to morning show bootcamp.com.

Kipper:

That's morning show bootcamp.com.

Dave:

Coming up.

Dave:

Rob shares some opportunities that may in fact be hiding and playing sight.

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The stuff we know NOW..we wish we'd known then Brandwidth on Demand.

Dave:

We're with the Always amazing Rob Barnett.

Dave:

Rob, after everything you've done, experienced and been through,

Dave:

what's one thing that you know now?

Dave:

You really wish you'd known way back before that first radio gig.

Rob:

Change is not the enemy.

Rob:

When I first started.

Rob:

I was so afraid of the idea of losing my job and being stuck in between jobs.

Rob:

I think that like so many of us, I had a lot of parental dna, and even my

Rob:

grandparents' DNA N that's inside a lot of us, and that d n A is somehow

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telling you that you're supposed to have a job that lasts for a long, long,

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long, long, long, long time, and you have these two things called security

Rob:

and stability, but now 136 years.

Rob:

I wish I knew that we are in stupid show business where everything changes right

Rob:

by the minute and this, this antiquated idea that I'm gonna have something that

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lasts for 10 years, I think is like a ball and chain that a lot of us carry

Rob:

around instead of being open to the fact.

Rob:

That there's just gonna be change.

Rob:

I mean, when they announced me as the president of C B S radio, it was about

Rob:

a week before this big annual meeting.

Rob:

So I stood up at the podium with, you know, hundreds of cbs, b s radio guys

Rob:

in the room and, and I said, I'm Rob Barnett, the president of C B S radio.

Rob:

And then I looked at my watch and I said, you know, for like 18

Rob:

months, because I wasn't afraid.

Rob:

You know?

Rob:

Right.

Rob:

He wasn't afraid.

Rob:

You know, it's the norm.

Rob:

Why do we get so upset?

Rob:

Exactly.

Dave:

Great point.

Dave:

Great point.

Dave:

Our thanks to Rob Barnett.

Dave:

He is a superstar.

Dave:

You'll find links to Rob's site, which could include your next opportunity.

Dave:

Information about his book.

Dave:

Next Job, best Job, and more in the show notes.

Dave:

Just scroll down on your phone.

Dave:

That's a wrap, kipper.

Dave:

It's all about finding the right job, not just a job.

Dave:

We'll talk about it in the show notes at Brandwidth on Demand.com.

Dave:

It's One Minute Martinizing.

Dave:

And I'm Dave Martin.

Kipper:

I'm Kipper McGee.

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