Minds

CEO & Founder

Mindvalley

Certified Life Coach

Leathwaite: Executive Search

Asia Strategy & Transformation Practice

True Search

Partner, Greater China Country Lead

H.I. Executive Consulting (HIEC)

Partner, APAC Professional Services Practice

VCube International

Founder and Partner

Alcoa

Director of Strategy and Analysis, Asia-Pacific

Roland Berger

Deputy Project Manager/Senior Consultant, Consumer & Retail and Technology

A.T. Kearney

Business Analyst, Financial Services

Gavin is a transformtional leader in executive search and personal coaching, renowned for his expertise in elevating senior leadership in high-growth start-ups and scale-ups. Collaborating with private equity, venture capital funds, and founders across Asia, Gavin delivers strategic talent insights and pioneering thought leadership.

With an illustrious career that includes conducting over 20,000 executive interviews, Gavin’s mastery in talent identification and influence has driven the success of global companies like McKinsey & Company, L Catterton (LVMH), Accenture and Permira.

Gavin’s passion for connecting with people and unveiling their unique stories led him to establish "Empower Through Stories", an initiative that inspires and motivates the next generation of leaders through powerful narratives. 

An alumnus of Stanford and the University of Chicago, Gavin’s global experience spans the US, Italy, Singapore, China, and Thailand. His leadership continues to set benchmarks in excellence, innovation, and influence in the industry.

Email: gavin@mindssearch.com
IG: gavng89

Gavin Ng

I had an amazing conversation with Creasoft Capital — and it’s one every founder should pay attention to - 

Entrepreneurship and the quiet costs that rarely make it into public conversation.

According to a study by UCSF, entrepreneurs are nearly twice as likely to experience burnout and chronic stress compared to the general working population.

And McKinsey & Company  projects that 30–45% of tasks will be automated by AI, which sounds exciting — until you realise automation doesn’t reduce demands on your mind.
Sometimes it increases them.

Decision fatigue.
Constant adaptation.
Th pressure to lead a team through a landscape that shifts every quarter.

So here’s the real question for founders:

What happens to your energy, clarity, and mental resilience when your business, your people, and the world all fight for your attention at the same time?

That’s what Wajeeh H. and I explored — the true cost of entrepreneurship in an AI-driven decade.

🎧 Podcast is on the way.

Stay tuned.

Gavin

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#entrepreneurship #founders #AIfuture #mentalhealth #leadership #thecostofit

Investor | Founder | Executive Search Leader | Coach

No alternative text description for this image

Meta just quietly signalled what every employee and leader needs to hear:
your future performance won’t just be what you do, but how much AI amplifies it.

From 2026, Meta will tie employee performance to “AI-driven impact.”

Not “Did you use AI?”
But: Did AI materially move your results?

Employees are being told to:

Use AI in day-to-day work.
Capture AI-fuelled wins in self-reviews.
Expect performance systems (and even review-writing) to be AI-assisted.

This isn’t just a Meta story.
It’s a preview of where performance culture is going.

Here’s what stands out to me:

🧠 AI literacy is shifting from “nice to have” to “core expectation.”
The question is no longer “Should I use AI?”
It’s “How irresponsible is it not to?” — especially in knowledge work.

⚡️ Performance is moving from effort-based to leverage-based.
It’s not just: “Did you complete the work?”
It’s: “How much did you use AI to multiply speed, quality, and output?”

🧩 The real differentiator won’t be AI access—it’ll be AI habits.
Everyone will have tools.
Few will build daily workflows: prompts, automation, internal copilots, AI-assisted thinking.

🚀 Companies are formalising an AI-native culture, not just AI tools.
When AI shows up in scorecards, hiring, promotion criteria, and even how reviews are written…
it stops being innovation and becomes muscle memory.

If you’re an employee, manager, or founder, here’s what I’d start doing now:

1️⃣ Rebuild your personal performance philosophy around leverage, not effort

Stop thinking in terms of “tasks completed” or “hours invested.”
Start thinking in terms of:

What did I accelerate?
What did I automate?
What quality did I improve?
What decision became sharper because of AI?

Your career advantage will come from showing compounding leverage, not incremental output.

2️⃣ Redesign your core workflows so AI becomes infrastructure, not an add-on

Pick 2–3 workflows that define your role: analysis, communication, research, reporting, client prep, project management.
Then ask:

Where can AI remove steps?
Where can it take the first draft?
Where can it pressure-test my assumptions?
Where can it replace low-value cognitive load?

Employees who make AI invisible (because it’s embedded everywhere) will outperform those who treat it as a tool they “use occasionally.”

3️⃣ Build a visible “AI impact narrative” — not a usage narrative

Management doesn’t care that you used AI.
They care what AI changed.

Create a simple track record you can point to:

Faster delivery cycles
Higher accuracy
Reduced manual work
Stronger client-facing outputs
Better decision frameworks
More scenarios explored per unit time

Now - What's the one thing that AI can meaningfully improve your performance?

- Gavin 

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#ai #executivesearch #aitalent

You don’t need the title “Head of AI.”
You just need one AI success metric.

In the past month, 3 mid-career professionals asked me the same quiet question:

“What can I possibly do next?
The job market pivots to AI. 
My skills feel… falling behind.”

They weren’t wrong.
AI has reshaped the talent market.
And many were never trained to use it.

But here’s the part most people misunderstand:
Recruiters aren’t looking for AI titles.
They’re looking for proof that you can deliver impact in an AI-enabled world.

Last week, I coached a senior corporate exec from a logistics company who felt “outdated.”
His CV said “AI Project Lead.”
But zero numbers. Zero proof.

We rewrote one line:

“Reduced onboarding time by 40% through AI automation.”

Within 2 weeks, his response rate tripled.

He didn’t become more “AI.”
He simply showed he could use AI to drive real business results.

That’s what the market rewards.

Because concrete metrics beat shiny titles every time.

More importantly — talent branding has shifted.
Your value is no longer your job title.
Your value is the impact you can prove.

Here’s the paradigm shift:

You don’t need to master AI.
You need to show how AI makes you more valuable.

And you can start small.

Here’s how to build your first AI success metric — even if you’re not technical:

1️⃣ Choose one task where AI can help you work faster.
Pick something you already do — drafting emails, analysing data, summarising meetings.
AI upgrades you.
This is your easiest path to a measurable win.

2️⃣ Use AI to reduce the time by 20–40%.
Ask AI to generate drafts, automate steps, or summarize.
Small wins count — they prove productivity.

3️⃣ Measure what changed.
Track minutes saved, errors reduced, or turnaround speed.
Numbers make your story credible.

4️⃣ Turn it into one CV bullet.
Grade-5 English.
Specific.
Impact-focused.

Like:
“Cut reporting time from 3 hours to 45 minutes using AI-assisted workflows.”

5️⃣ Update your LinkedIn intro with that one metric.
Leaders and investors notice people who can deliver, not just talk about AI.

This is how mid-career professionals stay relevant.
Not by chasing new titles — but by proving real-world value.

What’s one AI result you could show if someone asked you today for proof of impact?

– Gavin

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#CareerGrowth #Executivesearch #AI #mindssearch #ExecutiveCoaching

In Asia, I’ve watched great founders turn defensive, even destructive, when investor alignment broke down.

The first argument between founders and investors rarely happens in the boardroom.

It happens in the spreadsheet.
Revenue forecasts. 
Burn rates. 
Valuation and exit pressures.

The founder sees vision.
The investor sees math.
Both are right — and both are looking for a common ground.

Here’s the deeper truth:
Most founder–investor conflicts aren’t just about results.
They’re about rhythm.

The founder is playing the long game — obsessed with legacy, momentum, and the next horizon.
The investor is reporting quarterly — focused on discipline, clarity, and protecting capital.

One’s driven by conviction.
The other by validation.

The best founders learn to measure progress without shrinking their dream.
The best investors I’ve seen translate ambition into accountability — without killing belief.

5 practical moves to achieve this goal:
1. Translate Vision into Metrics
Sit down quarterly. Founder leads the “why.” Both define the “how to measure.”
Walk out with one shared story, two columns: vision + KPIs.

2. Build Dual Dashboards
Run two scoreboards side-by-side:
• Growth (users, brand, expansion)
• Governance (burn, margin, cash)
Review both monthly — no decision if one goes dark.

3. Agree on Non-Negotiables
Founders list 3 red lines (e.g. no mission dilution).
Investors list 3 (e.g. no governance blind spots).
Put it in writing — revisit every 6 months.

4. Hold Pulse Checks
15-minute sync mid-quarter.
No slides. One question:
“Are we still aligned on rhythm?”
Prevents big misalignment later.

5. Co-Author the Narrative
After each board, founder writes vision, investor writes evidence.
One internal memo — one message.
Story + numbers = trust.

But rhythm is a choice.
You can always choose to tune before the music stops.

- Gavin

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#asialeadership #executivesearchforfounders

This chart puts a visual to the quiet anxiety a lot of us are feeling right now.

For decades, the formula was simple: Corporate growth equals hiring. 

When the S&P 500 went up, job openings followed. They synchronized.

We are witnessing the "Great Decoupling." in real time. 

The S&P 500 is roaring to new heights, driven by efficiency and AI optimism, while total job openings are freefalling back to pre-pandemic levels.

What does this mean for us as professionals?

It means the future isn’t just unequal; it’s sharply "K-Shaped." he "K" represents a split in how we work and how our value is measured.

🔹 The upward arm of the 'K': Professionals and companies using AI to decouple their output from their headcount. They are achieving exponential efficiency. Growth is no longer labor-dependent; it's capital and compute-dependent.
🔹 The downward arm of the 'K': Roles defined by repetitive cognitive tasks, or professionals waiting for the "hype to blow over." The chart shows the market no longer values this labor at the same rate.

The debate isn't "Will AI create more jobs than it destroys in 20 years?" The reality is today. Today, companies are realizing they can grow massive value without massive hiring.

If you are reading this as a knowledge worker, this may be a wake-up call. The middle ground is vanishing.

Actionable Insights for the K-Shaped Future:
🚀 Stop being a "user" and become a "leverager." 
Don't just ask ChatGPT to summarize an email. Use AI to redesign your entire workflow to be 10x faster. If your output is tethered to your hours worked, you are vulnerable.

🔍Audit your role for automation risk. 
Be honest. What percentage of your week could a sophisticated agent handle in 2 years? If it’s over 50%, pivot immediately to strategy, complex human relationship management, or high-level creative synthesis.

🤝 Become the "Human-in-the-Loop" expert. 
The upward arm of the K belongs to those who can orchestrate AI systems, audit their outputs for hallucinations, and apply high-judgment ethics to machine decisions.

The link between growth and jobs starts to break. Which side of the break are you standing on?

- Gavin

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#ArtificialIntelligence #executivesearch

When humanoid robots clean skyscrapers and load aircraft, what happens to the ‘entry-level job’?

Three headlines this week hit me harder than usual:
✈️ Amsterdam is testing robots for aircraft ground operations.
🏙️High-rise façade-cleaning robots are now commercially deployed in Asia.
⚙️Yamaha expanded its industrial robot line — longer reach, faster cycles, more flexible form factors.

Individually, these are cool engineering stories.
Together, they signal something larger:

The ‘first job’ in many industries is quietly disappearing.
Not in a dramatic Hollywood way.
But in the slow, economic way that reshapes a labour market before people realise what happened.

Because here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Technology doesn’t remove jobs — it removes the starting point of a career ladder.

And when the bottom rung disappears, the entire pathway above it must be rebuilt.

And the deeper truth emerging from these signals is this:

🤖Automation enters through the work humans avoid… but exits through the work humans thought they owned.
Cleaning buildings wasn’t a “career destination,” but it was a pathway upward.
When the pathway automates, the middle weakens next.

⚠️We’re not moving into a labour shortage—we’re moving into a skills misalignment crisis.
Japan needs robots because workers are disappearing.
ASEAN will have workers—but not enough robot-literate ones.

🔀 The divide won’t be humans vs robots—it will be humans who can work with robots vs those who can’t.
A cognitive divide.
A workflow divide.
A judgement divide.

🧩 The real competitive advantage won’t be robot hardware—it will be the ecosystem around it.
Robot OS, predictive maintenance, safety layers, orchestration software, industry-specific modules—
this is the “AWS of robotics,” and someone will own it.

In your industry, which entry-level role in your industry will automation quietly absorb first — and what new pathway replaces it?

- Gavin
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The Hidden Role of Executive Search in Scale-ups

Executive search in a scale-up isn’t about recruitment.
It’s about risk management.

When a company hits Series B or C, every new leader either protects enterprise value — or destroys it.

I’ve sat on both sides:
The founder wants someone who “gets it.”
The investor wants someone who can run it.
And somewhere between those two worlds is the person who can actually scale it.

In one Series C search, the brief wasn’t “Find me a CEO.”
It was “Find me someone the founder can trust — and the board can believe in.”

Skills were easy to check.
But the real test was chemistry, emotional maturity, and timing.
Because you’re not just hiring for execution —
you’re designing the next phase of governance.

What Smart Founders and Investors Do Differently ⚙️

1️⃣ Define the next chapter, not just the role.
Clarity on where the company is going shapes who you need — not the other way around.

2️⃣ Hire one phase ahead.
The best leaders can handle the next 18 months, not just the current quarter.

3️⃣ Run the founder–fit test early.
Don’t wait for chemistry issues post-hire — build trust during the search.

4️⃣ Split ownership clearly.
Founders lead vision, new hires lead systems — and both report truth to the board.

5️⃣ Onboard with alignment, not paperwork.
Use the first 60 days to sync culture and expectations — not just sign contracts.

The best searches don’t replace founders — they protect what made them and the company successful.
Hire for continuity.

- Gavin

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#executivesearch #scaleupleadership

If AI is part of your fund raising pitch, investors only want to know one thing:
“Does this make your business more repeatable, or more replaceable?”

I sit with a lot of early-stage founders across Asia, and there’s a pattern I’m seeing more often now.
They come in with ambitious ideas, clean slides, early success and a long list of AI features.
But when we move into the business model, very few can explain how AI might actually strengthen the engine of the company.

Not the vision.
Not the narrative.
The engine.

Last week, a founder walked me through a pitch that looked great on the surface.
But as we discussed their operations, it became clear that the AI was more decoration than discipline.
It didn’t deepen their defensibility.
It didn’t increase output consistency.
It didn’t reduce dependence on human judgment.
It was simply there, like a new coat of paint over the same old wall.

And that’s the skepticism many investors feel today.

We’re no longer asking whether AI is there.
We’re asking whether your business can survive when AI becomes a commodity — because in many categories, it already is.

A single engineer with vibe coding can now rebuild half of what used to be considered a SaaS product.
Features are less important.
Repeatability is key.

The founders who get investor trust are the one who can walk investors through a workflow and point to the exact place where AI improves speed, accuracy, or consistency — and then tie that directly to cost, margin, or scale.

When AI reduces variance, that’s repeatability.
When AI removes friction, that’s repeatability.
When AI shifts work from intuition to process, that’s repeatability.
And repeatability is what investors underwrite at early stage — because it’s the only signal that the business can grow without collapsing under its own weight.

How to make your investor deck “AI-repeatability ready”

1️⃣ Add a “Before vs After AI” slide

Show the exact process today vs. the AI-enhanced version.
Use simple numbers.
People understand contrast more than concepts.

2️⃣ Quantify one metric that moves

It can be delivery time, onboarding hours, churn, accuracy, or CAC.
One number is better than ten assumptions.
Keep it real, even if it’s early.

3️⃣ Explain why AI makes the process repeatable (solving a pain point)

Say it plainly:
“What used to depend on human judgment now depends on a system.”
Repeatability reduces risk — and investors invest to reduce risk.

4️⃣ Pressure-test the idea with a non-technical audience

If they can’t explain back how AI helps, you’re still speaking jargon.
Clear storytelling beats technical depth.

Your next investor meeting will go very differently depending on that answer.

– Gavin

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#StartupPitch #InvestorDeck #AIValue #StartupInvestment #GrowthStrategy

The Fragile Middle (0→1 vs. 1→10 vs. 10→100)

Most startups don’t die at zero.
They die in the middle.

At 0→1, everyone’s a builder.
Speed matters more than structure.
You hire missionaries, not mercenaries.
Every win feels like a miracle.

At 1→10, momentum arrives.
You start hiring specialists, building functions, tightening focus.
Meetings appear. Processes emerge.
Chaos slowly gets organized.

At 10→100, the business demands systems.
Governance, predictability, structure — everything investors love.
But that’s when something else breaks.

I’ve helped companies move from startup to scale-up, then to growth, and eventually pre-IPO.

And the most fragile stage isn’t the start —
it’s that messy, awkward scale-up → pre-IPO transition (10→100).

Because that’s when:

The company outgrows its early heroes but hasn’t yet attracted institutional leaders.
Every process feels half-built.
Everyone’s learning on the job — under investor pressure.

It’s long, scrappy, and brutally exposed.
Because for the first time, you’re building the plane while flying toward the runway.

That’s why this stage kills momentum more often than the early chaos.
The skill set that got you here — creativity, speed, hustle — now needs to evolve into discipline, clarity, and governance.
And most teams underestimate that evolution.

Here are 5 ways to navigate the messy middle 🚀
🔥 1. Build your bridge team.
Hire a few people who’ve scaled before — they’ll turn chaos into order without killing speed.

🧭 2. Write things down early.
Don’t wait to “get organized later.”
Document what works now so new hires don’t start from zero.

⚙️ 3. Balance growth and control.
Keep chasing growth, but make sure someone’s watching burn, cash, and compliance.

🧩 4. Make board talks useful.
Stop reciting updates — talk about what’s changing, what’s breaking, and what help you need.

💬 5. Communicate more than feels necessary.
The moment you think “everyone knows,” they don’t.
Keep repeating direction until it sticks.

What stage are you really leading right now: 0→1, 1→10, or 10→100? What's that one small win you can get this month. Small wins compound faster than perfect plans. 

- Gavin

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#scaleupgrowth #executivesearchforfounders

I love the positivity in this.

A young engineer getting recognised because her actions mattered more than her volume.

If AI can help leaders spot quiet, consistent, high-integrity contributors… that’s a future I’m excited about. 😊

No.1 Tech Voice to Follow & Influencer on LinkedIn|Award Winning Author|AI-IoT-Blockchain-Cybersecurity|Speaker|61k+

Google co-founder Sergey Brin ran an unusual experiment inside an internal company chat by asking #Gemini which participant deserved a promotion.
Instead of selecting senior or outspoken employees, the AI highlighted a young woman engineer who was rarely vocal but consistently contributed.
After reviewing Gemini’s suggestion, leadership approved her promotion.
The incident underscores how AI systems may surface overlooked talent that traditional performance reviews often miss.

We have 2 years before everything changes.

Not 10.
Not 5.
But 2.

I watched Steven Bartlett's new hashtag
#doac episode today, and it hit me harder than I expected.

Because the truth is — many people think AI is a “future nice problem" to have, which we would enjoy the increased productivity, accessibility to better and cheaper services and goods. 

And here’s the part people don’t want to hear:
What's the "trade" when we are opt in to this future?

Love the the balanced, real perspectives on our near future discussed in this episode. 

If you watch one thing this week, watch this:
https://lnkd.in/gfRwuiDA

This will shift how you think about the next two years — and why the real disruption is happening sooner than we think.

- Gavin

https://lnkd.in/gWDXuzqj

Open video: AI Expert: We Have 2 Years Before Everything Changes! We Need To Start Protesting! - Tristan Harris on youtu.be

AI Expert: We Have 2 Years Before Everything Changes! We Need To Start Protesting! - Tristan Harris

The Professional Independence Academy by Nathan Pearce

The days of job security through company loyalty are over. In today's economy, your safety doesn't come from being a "good employee"—it comes from building professional independence that no employer can take away.

The Professional Independence Academy teaches ambitious professionals how to break free from corporate dependency and build careers that thrive regardless of market conditions, layoffs, or industry disruption. We don't help you become a better employee; we help you become professionally antifragile.
Our proven methodology transforms high-performing professionals from vulnerable corporate dependents into strategically independent authorities who control their own economic destiny. Through our three-pillar system, you'll build the foundation for a career that gets stronger with every challenge.

▶︎ Pillar 1: Professional Authority
Establish industry recognition and thought leadership that exists beyond any employer. Build a reputation, network, and expertise that belong to you—not your company. When opportunities arise, they come to you first.

▶︎ Pillar 2: Financial Independence
Create multiple income streams that reduce dependency on any single employer. Develop 3-5 revenue sources providing 30-50% of your current income, giving you the economic foundation to make career decisions from abundance rather than desperation.

▶︎ Pillar 3: Strategic Independence
Gain the freedom to make career decisions based on your goals and values rather than circumstances. With authority and financial security established, you control your professional trajectory—choosing roles strategically, taking calculated risks, and designing your future rather than reacting to it.

Stop being at the mercy of corporate decisions. Build professional independence that lasts.

Founder

Aviatrix

Responsible for the GTM strategy for the Aviatrix Cloud Firewall offering:
* Messaging
* Pricing
* Sales Enablement

Product Marketing

Prosimo.io

Research, create, and execute brand and product marketing strategy.
* built prospect/customer enablement program
* built and delivered Prosimo Labs (certification program)
* planned and executed marketing campaigns w/ Creative Director

Director of Product Marketing

HashiCorp

Global Subject Matter Expert Lead for HashiCorp’s Networking products. 
* Create Sales Plays and run Field Enablement sessions
* Support Regional Sales Teams major opportunities
* Aggregate Field Requirements and prioritize with Product Management

Emerging Products GTM Specialist

REDtalks.live

Host

Balanced Blends

In the age of the digital economy, customer engagement is the intersection of marketing and software engineering. At Balanced Blends we strive to delight our customers with a focus on transparency in our communications supported with the delivery of customer-centric, software-based services.

Head of Customer Engagement

F5 Networks

Working with customers on developer experience working with F5 product and solution. Focussed on 'systems thinking' and building sustainable integrations. Collaborate with me on prototype solutions!

Developer Advocate, Office of the CTO

Customer interfacing workflow validation, inter-departmental liaison, and AR/PR spokesperson.

Product Development, Solutions Architect - Orchestration

Public speaking, blogging, writing, organising.

Sr Technical Marketing Manager

Responsible for influencing product development strategy as it relates to the EMEA market and for evangelising F5's product roadmap & vision. Involves working with Press, Investors, speaking at conferences and interviewing customers.

Product Manager - EMEA

UK Subject Matter Expert on Next Generation Datacenter agility & virtualisation technologies.

Next Generation Datacenter Expert

Technical design support for named major account list.

Technical Account Manager

ApplianSys

Responsible for the Web Acceleration business unit covering sales, technical development strategy and marketing.

Business Manager

Microbits

Network design, implementation and support.

Network Engineer

Minter Ellison Lawyers

Systems Administrator

Helping you build your personal brand. Multiple Startups and IPOs. Entrepreneur, angel investor, Fractional COO, dad.

I help people build Professional Independence: the ability to thrive professionally regardless of corporate decisions, market conditions, or industry disruption.

After witnessing countless talented professionals devastated by layoffs despite their dedication and performance, I realized the problem isn't individual failure—it's systemic dependency on employers for income, recognition, and career progression.

Traditional career advice tells you to be a better employee. I teach you to become professionally antifragile through three core pillars:

▶︎ Professional Authority: Build industry recognition and thought leadership that exists beyond any employer. Your reputation, network, and expertise belong to you—not your company.

▶︎ Financial Independence: Create multiple income streams that reduce dependency on your salary. Develop 3-5 revenue sources providing economic foundation to make career decisions from abundance.

▶︎ Strategic Independence: Gain freedom to make career decisions based on your goals, not desperation. Control your professional trajectory rather than reacting to external circumstances.

Through The Professional Independence Academy and Layoff Recovery Accelerator, I've helped hundreds of professionals break free from corporate dependency and build careers that strengthen with every challenge.

Your professional future shouldn't be at the mercy of someone else's decisions. Let's build something that belongs to you.


Entrepreneur.
Angel Investor.
Fractional COO
Founder of The Professional Independence Academy: https://professionalindependence.com

Nathan Pearce

I've been thinking about Owen Cole lately.

Zero agenda. Nothing to gain from this post.

Just pure gratitude for someone who saw potential where others might have seen risk.

Here's what happened:
Owen gave me my first Sales Engineer role on his team (15-ish years ago). I had the Unix/Linux nerd skills down cold, but engaging global enterprise customers? That was completely new territory.

He didn't just hand me the role and hope for the best. He backed me. Developed me. Gave me the space to grow into it.

That single decision changed the trajectory of my career.

▶︎ He didn't hire the safe bet: he saw potential and took a chance. 
▶︎ He didn't just manage: he genuinely developed people. 
▶︎ He didn't build teams through churn: he built loyalty (year-on-year growth without attrition speaks volumes).

The opportunities that followed? The career I've built? It all traces back to Owen taking that risk.

Looking back at the recommendations from people who worked with him, there's a consistent theme: technical excellence, yes... but more than that, someone who knew how to apply the right people to the right problems. Someone who showed up with passion. Someone who earned respect globally, not through authority, but through integrity.

That's rare.

If you've had someone take a chance on you when others might not have, you know how much that matters. Owen was that person for me.

No hidden motive. No ask. Just genuine gratitude for someone who changed my life by believing in what I could become.

Who's someone who saw potential in you before you'd fully proven it? Drop their name below. Let's celebrate the people who take those risks on others.

Who was your Owen Cole:
https://lnkd.in/gcNWVskK

⸻

➕ Follow Nathan Pearce for more insights.
♻️ Repost to help others (and see more content from me!)
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Founder | Follow for posts on building Professional Independence, Personal Brand Growth, Marketing & AI | Entrepreneur, angel investor, Fractional COO, dad.

Open article: Owen Cole - West Hythe, England, United Kingdom | Professional Profile | LinkedIn by uk.linkedin.com

Owen Cole - West Hythe, England, United Kingdom | Professional Profile | LinkedIn

The worst career advice I ever followed: "Be indispensable to your employer."

I watched it backfire spectacularly.

The better I got at my job, the more trapped I became. My expertise was company-specific. My network was internal. My reputation existed only within those walls.

When restructuring came, being "indispensable" meant nothing.

Here's what traditional career advice gets wrong:

▶︎ "Be a better employee" - This deepens your dependency instead of reducing it. You become more valuable to one company while becoming less marketable everywhere else.

▶︎ "Build an emergency fund" - Financial cushions help you survive job loss. They don't prevent the cycle from repeating. You're still one decision away from starting over.

▶︎ "Network more" - Most professionals network only when they need something. It feels transactional and desperate because it is.

▶︎ "Update your resume" - When everyone's using the same strategy, standing out becomes nearly impossible. Your resume gets lost in ATS systems with thousands of others.

These aren't solutions. They're band-aids on a broken system.

The real problem? Single-point-of-failure career design.

Your income, reputation, and opportunities all depend on one employer's decisions. That's not security. That's vulnerability.

Professional independence means building what they can't take away:

Authority that exists outside company walls. Income streams that don't disappear with your job. Strategic options that let you move from strength, not desperation.

Stop optimizing for one employer. Start building what you actually own.


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40% of companies posted fake job listings last year.

30% have ghost jobs posted right now.

If you're job hunting, there's a good chance you've applied to positions that were never real.

Here's what's happening:

A Resume Builder survey of 650 hiring managers found that ghost jobs are everywhere. 72% of fake listings appear on company websites. 70% are on LinkedIn.

Why do companies do this?

66% admit they post fake jobs to create the impression of growth. They want to look like they're expanding when they're not.

It's frustrating. You spend hours tailoring your resume and writing a thoughtful cover letter, only to hear nothing back.

Because the job was never real.

So what do you do?

1️⃣ Don't get your hopes up with every application. Treat each one as a numbers game, not a guaranteed opportunity, but...

2️⃣ ...and this is a BIG BUT, don't let this reality lower your standards. Keep writing those cover letters. Keep tailoring your resume. The real jobs are out there, and quality applications still win.

3️⃣ Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. The market is tough. Ghost jobs make it tougher. But giving up or cutting corners won't help you land the roles that actually exist.

Stay sharp. Stay consistent. Keep going.

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Before considering a new job, always ask yourself: "Am I running toward something, or from something?"

This question changed how I think about career moves.

Running from something looks like:
🔴 Leaving because you're burned out (but not addressing why)
🔴 Escaping a toxic manager (without examining your boundaries)
🔴 Chasing higher pay (while ignoring what drained you)

Running toward something looks like:
🟢 Moving for growth you've clearly defined
🟢 Seeking alignment with values you've identified
🟢 Building on skills you want to develop further

Here's what I've learned: If you don't understand what you're running from, you'll recreate the same problems in your next role.

The manager changes. The company changes. But your patterns with boundaries, workload, and saying no? Those follow you.

The most valuable career moves happen when you're clear about both.

What are you leaving behind, and why did it become a problem? What are you moving toward, and why does it matter?

That clarity doesn't just help you choose better opportunities. It helps you show up differently when you get there.

Your next job won't fix what you haven't examined in this one.

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Most professionals think career security means being really good at landing jobs.

They're wrong.

I learned this the hard way through multiple layoffs. Each time, I got better at the job search process. Better resume. Better networking. Better interviews.

But I was solving the wrong problem.

Getting good at finding your next job is like getting good at putting out fires. You're still dependent on the fire not starting in the first place.

The real problem is professional fragility.

Your career security depends entirely on:
- Your current employer staying stable
- Your role not being eliminated
- Your industry not being disrupted
- Your company valuing you enough to keep you

One external shock and you're scrambling. Updating resumes at midnight. Frantically applying to hundreds of jobs. Accepting lower offers because you have no leverage.

You're starting from zero every single time.

Here's what changed for me: I stopped optimizing for my next job and started building Professional Independence.

Three pillars that transformed everything:

Professional Authority: Industry recognition that exists independent of any employer. When opportunities come to you continuously, you're never starting from zero.

Financial Independence: Multiple income streams providing 30-50% of your salary. Consulting, digital products, strategic investments. You're never financially trapped.

Strategic Independence: True career optionality. You have 3-5 viable paths available at any time. You make moves strategically, not desperately.

The result? Your career becomes antifragile.

Without independence: 
Layoff → Panic → Desperate search → Accept anything → Repeat

With independence: 
Market shift → Calm assessment → Multiple opportunities already in motion → Strategic decision from strength → Career gets stronger

The cycle doesn't have to repeat.

You can build something different.


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The labor market is flashing warning signs most people are missing.

U.S. companies shed an average of 2,500 jobs per week in the four weeks ending November 1st.

That's not a headline number. It's a trend.

October layoffs hit their highest level in 22 years for the month, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Meanwhile, 39,006 Americans across 21 states received WARN notices—formal warnings required 60 days before mass layoffs.

This is one of the highest counts since tracking began in 2006.

Major players are cutting deep:
• Target
• Amazon
• UPS

And economists predict this is just the beginning. AI adoption is expected to accelerate layoffs in 2025, even though the technology has had a net positive impact on jobs so far this year.

Here's what makes this moment different: we're flying blind.

The government shutdown delayed two months of federal jobs data. We're making decisions about the economy without seeing the full picture.

The delayed September employment report drops Thursday. Economists expect just 50,000 payroll gains.

If you're employed, now is the time to strengthen your position. Update your skills. Expand your network. Build visibility.

The warning signs are there. The question is whether you're paying attention.


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Paying someone to optimize your LinkedIn profile is a huge waste of money.

Unless you're actually going to use it.

Many have paid for an optimized profile, and I get that, it worked well a few years ago, but today, an optimized profile alone is not going to move any needles.

I know several people who have spent $500+ on profile optimization only to remain invisible.

Here's what we learned: A polished profile without activity is like a beautiful storefront with the lights off.

Nobody's walking in.

You can have the perfect headline, a compelling About section, and a spotless work history. But if you're not posting, commenting, or engaging, you're invisible.

Think about it like this:

Building a website doesn't generate sales. Marketing the website does.

Optimizing your profile doesn't build your brand. Using LinkedIn consistently does.

Here's the red flag: If someone offers to optimize your profile but doesn't have a plan for what comes after, walk away.

Ask them: "Ok, and then what?"

If they can't answer that, they're just selling you a static webpage.

Your profile is the destination. But it's not the activity that makes you visible.

The activity is posting, commenting, engaging, and showing up consistently.

Your personal brand is a business. You're the CEO.

And CEOs don't just set up shop and wait. They market. They show up. They create value.

So if you're thinking about hiring someone to fix your profile, ask yourself first: Am I ready to actually use this platform?

Because the profile is just the foundation. The real work starts after.

Post once a week. Comment on others' content. Share what you're learning. Build relationships.

That's how you turn a profile into a presence.

And a presence into opportunities.

The investment isn't in the profile. It's in showing up consistently after it's built.


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Most job seekers are playing the wrong game entirely.

There are two completely different channels for getting hired. 95% of people are stuck in the one that doesn't work.

Channel 1: The Application Channel

You submit your resume through a company portal. It goes into an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that scans for keywords and filters based on arbitrary criteria. Maybe it surfaces to a recruiter already looking at 200+ other applications.

The flow:
You → ATS Algorithm → Maybe Recruiter → Maybe Hiring Manager → Interview

At every step, you're being filtered out. The ATS kills qualified candidates based on formatting and thesaurus use. The recruiter spends 6 seconds scanning your resume. The hiring manager stops looking after the first 50 applications.

You have no control here. You're hoping to get chosen.

Channel 2: The Sourcing Channel

Recruiters actively search for candidates using LinkedIn's search tools. They're looking through their network, asking for referrals, paying attention to who's visible in their industry.

The flow:
Recruiter → Search/Discovery → You → Direct Contact → Conversation

You're talking to a human before your resume enters any system. You're not competing with 200 applications. You're being discovered as a potential fit.

You have massive control here. You're being sought out.

The difference? In the application channel, your odds are 1-in-200. In the sourcing channel, they're more like 1-in-15.

Being discoverable isn't about luck. It's about understanding which game actually works.

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Your severance package just started its countdown.

The clock is ticking, but most people waste the most valuable week of their entire job search.

Here's the truth: How you spend your first week unemployed predicts how your entire job search will go.

You can download our FREE "Layoff Recovery: Your First 7 Days" guide here: https://lnkd.in/ed7BUKYD

Most people treat a layoff like a personal crisis. They retreat, they ruminate, they scroll job boards aimlessly while anxiety builds.

But the professionals who bounce back fastest? They treat it like a product manager responding to a competitor's game-changing feature.

Not with panic. With clarity, data, and considered action.

Here's what the first week should look like:

🟢 Day 1-2: Tactical Assessment
→ Update LinkedIn with a professional narrative (not victim story)
→ Export all professional contacts before losing company access (if possible)
→ Document recent wins while they're fresh in your mind

🟢 Day 3-4: Market Intelligence
→ Research who's hiring in your space (and their hiring timelines)
→ Identify 3 people who made similar transitions successfully
→ Review compensation data for your target roles

🟢 Day 5-7: Strategic Positioning
→ Craft 2-3 versions of your story for different audiences
→ Schedule coffee chats with 5 people in your network
→ Create a content calendar to stay visible during your search

The difference between a 3-month search and a 12-month search often comes down to how you spend week one.

Your layoff isn't a crisis. It's a product pivot.

Treat it accordingly.

Get the FREE "Layoff Recovery: Your First 7 Days" guide now: https://lnkd.in/ed7BUKYD


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Most job seekers are competing in a channel with 1-in-200 odds while ignoring the one with 1-in-15 odds.

A recruiter friend admitted something uncomfortable recently: She knows her ATS rejects qualified candidates. She sees it happen to people she knows personally. But with 300+ applications per role, manually reviewing them all is impossible.

The system is broken. Everyone knows it. And yet 95% of job seekers keep playing the same losing game.

Here's what changed everything for me:

Earlier in my career, I spent nine months in application hell. Over 200 applications. Too many browser tabs open. Zero offers.

Then a former colleague reached out. Coffee conversation. Direct introduction to the hiring manager. Offer in two weeks.

Same resume. Completely different channel.

▶︎ The two channels:

① Channel 1 (Application): You → ATS → Maybe Recruiter → Maybe Hiring Manager
• Your odds: 1-in-200
• Your control: Zero
• You're hoping to get chosen

② Channel 2 (Sourcing): Recruiter Search → You → Direct Contact → Conversation
• Your odds: 1-in-15
• Your control: Massive
• You're being sought out


The difference? Professional visibility that exists independent of any job posting.

When recruiters search LinkedIn for your expertise, do they find you? What do they learn in the first 10 seconds?

This is about building Professional Authority - recognition that no employer can take away, opportunity that finds you, and leverage you control.

What's your experience with these two channels?

P.S. This week's newsletter breaks down exactly how to position yourself in the sourcing channel, including a ChatGPT hack for analyzing 200+ job postings instantly. 

Link below (Don't forget to Subscribe) 👇

https://lnkd.in/g4tnTQQ3

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