Brendan Walsh

I'd been out of work for a long time, and my job search was a one-trick pony — blindly applying through LinkedIn and Indeed, getting emotionally attached to specific companies, and wondering why they wouldn't just hire me. I think I was wearing a suit of desperation, and even if people weren't seeing me, it might have come through in my writing.

My sister pushed me to join. She said, "Didn't you go to that incredibly elite surf school for a ridiculous amount of money? Why wouldn't you invest the same in your career?" Working on my clarity statement was one of the first big breakthroughs — future projecting where I imagined myself with no guardrails. The "tell me about yourself" was a revelation. In 1998, rambling for twenty minutes was okay. Now, with the intensity of competition, it's not going to work.

Staples actually found me on LinkedIn, and initially it wasn't a company I was thinking about. But as I progressed through their process, using all the tactics from the program, things moved quickly. HR passed me through after a strong phone screen, the hiring manager was impressed by my storytelling, and I had these encapsulated stories I could pull from memory.

The mindset work was the through-line of the entire program. It's not just great for the job search — it translates directly into product work, influencing stakeholders, and building alignment across teams.