Jonaed Iqbal

@NoDegree.com | Recruiting Nontraditional Talent That Transforms Businesses | Host @The NoDegree Podcast | ATS Executive Resumes | Resume, Job Search, & LinkedIn optimization course on website | 290+ LinkedIn Reviews

Giving is my fuel.

I felt like I was locked in a cage, producing excel reports for executives that looked at them for just a few seconds at most. I wasn’t impacting anyone. My future was bound to be filled with useless meetings as the core of my personality, my passion for helping people, wasted away.

Did you know that 95% of job postings are inaccurate and misleading? The job search and interview process is broken. Many good candidates pass over listings because they don’t feel they’re good enough and, instead, unfit candidates apply. There is also a stigma associated with people without college degrees, who’re most often left behind as a result. You wouldn't judge your mechanic by his/her ability to pass a math test, would you? 

For job seekers who are seeking employment or looking to transition, NoDegree provides customized career strategy assistance. 

For businesses who need assistance with their recruiting and interview process, NoDegree’s role allows you to gain a competitive advantage by having “the right” employee. While you focus on your company culture and bottom line, the candidate you need for your business is being filtered and found. 

Most recruiters just try to push candidates through so they can get their fee. NoDegree is different. Through the established relationship with the candidate, knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses, NoDegree only places them in environments that they will excel in.

NoDegree works with companies that see past the college degree. Companies like Google, VaynerMedia, IBM and others are on the forefront of this new trend. I am a fierce advocate for extraordinary individuals who have chosen to bypass the traditional college route and go straight into impacting the world. 

I remember all the people that were kind to me and my mission is to make a difference in companies and in lives. Empathy makes the world a better place and I’m proud to be a contributor. My dream of giving for a living has come true in so many ways. 

Let’s connect. I have not hit the 30K connection limit. Send me a message if you feel we can work together. I will provide the highest level of service because that's what you deserve.

Talent Program Manager

ACE was created to bring premier virtual events to companies that need exceptional virtual events. 
 
With a strong background in the physical event world, marketing, and strategy, we apply our deep knowledge to every event produced for our clients. Our team has done 300+ events.
 
ACE can handle everything from virtual networking events to full, turnkey, virtual conference solutions. We made it happen many times before, and we will do the same for you.

• Partner with Remo engineering team to define/prioritize features, customer needs, and architectural improvements • Collaborate with 3 partners to generate $1M+ in sales from event management, tech support, and consulting services 
• Train and mentor 30+ college students and working professionals on tech support, careers, and communication 
• Hire team of 80+ through referrals and word of mouth globally
• Deliver exceptional customer service, resulting in recurring business and events from 22 clients • Host virtual careers with 300+ attendees and speakers from Google, Microsoft, Tesla, NBC, NASA, LinkedIn, and Twitch • Host 300+ virtual events with 30-1K+ attendees for global clients (nonprofits, associations, enterprises)

Make happiness your company’s superpower | Using positivity experiments and a happiness blueprint to unlock your team’s performance | Team Coach | Founder @ Smiling Bowtie

You're Not Just Building an App. You're Building a Feeling.

Most founders think they're selling a product.
They're not.
They're selling confidence. Ease. Trust. Belonging.

But somewhere between the idea in your head and the code on the screen, that feeling gets lost.
It gets buried under features, frameworks, and friction.

That's where I come in.

I don't just build apps.
I build experiences that feel right.

The kind that make your audience say, "Finally, someone gets me."
The kind that turn your big idea into something people actually use and love.

Because good tech doesn't just work.
It connects.

WHAT I DO

I help founders, solopreneurs, and business owners bring their ideas to life through emotionally intelligent design.

The kind of apps that feel as good as they function.

Sometimes that looks like building custom AI apps designed for trust, not just features.
Other times it's helping product teams craft user flows that increase engagement and retention.

And for growing businesses, it's partnering as a Fractional Product & Experience lead, architecting both the tech and the human journey behind AI products.

WHY IT WORKS

I'm a systems-thinking creative who spent 20+ years leading in fashion, tech, devops, coaching, and EQ before realizing something big:

I wasn't meant to just build systems.
I was meant to build experiences that make people feel something.

Now I turn ideas into apps that reduce workplace anxiety, improve team connection, and help people feel seen and valued.

Because the future of tech isn't just artificial intelligence.
It's emotional intelligence, built right in.

WHO I WORK WITH

Founders building their MVP who need a technical partner who gets the human side.
Product teams who know engagement isn't about more features, it's about better experience.
Executives who want tools that actually reduce turnover instead of just tracking it.

If your idea matters and you want it built with care, clarity, and emotional depth, let's talk.

DM me or visit: https://smilingbowtie.com

Antoni Tzavelas, ACC

I couldn't have done any of this without her.
 
Not the career changes. Not the pivots that looked like failures from the outside. Not the crazy ideas that somehow became real things.
 
My wife has been beside me since 1999. Married since 2005.
 
Through every transition, she said the same thing:
 
"Do what makes you happy and don't settle."
 
That's it. No conditions. No "but what about the money" or "but what will people think." Just that.
 
So I followed my heart. Every single time.
 
Fashion to tech. Tech to coaching. Coaching to building apps. Each one looked strange from the outside. Each one made sense on the inside.
 
She made it safe to keep listening to that inside voice.
 
People see the bowties and the builds and the stages. They don't see the person who made it okay to keep going.
 
Twenty-six years later, I'm still following her advice.

Antoni Tzavelas

Fractional CTO for Founders Who Know Tech Isn’t Enough | I Turn Ideas Into Apps That Feel Good to Use & Drive Real Retention | Coffee + Pizza Aficionado

Back in May last year, I hit a real wall.
 
Business had been dry for almost 2 years. Bills doing that thing bills do when you stop opening them. I remember sitting there thinking... maybe this is what it looks like when it's over.
 
So I reached out to God and prayed out of desperation. What did I have to lose?

What I didn't know was that God was listening.
 
2 months later, I got my first startup client.
 
That same week, someone introduced me to Joe Dispenza. And for the first time in a long time, I stopped running. I sat with the fear I've held for decades. The shame. The stuff I'd been quietly hauling around pretending it wasn't heavy.
 
It was heavy.
 
I started meditating every morning before the world woke up. Visualizing what I wanted instead of rehearsing what I was afraid of.

This is when the world of abundance opened up to me.
 
Today I'm involved in 3 startups, more clients than I can handle, and I genuinely love what I do.
 
I'm not saying this is a formula. I'm saying rock bottom was the first place quiet enough to hear myself think. When I stopped trying to control everything, there was suddenly room for something different to show up.
 
If you're in the messy middle right now...
 
Just wait. 

Your next chapter might already be written. You just haven't lived it yet.

I've been disappearing.
 
The apps kept getting built, but the conversations stopped happening.
 
Last night I decided to change that.

Moriah dragged me to Bruce Mayhew's book launch. Never met the man. Didn't know his work.
 
And I almost said no.
 
Bruce got up and spoke about his writing journey. About what it means to put your truth on a page and just... trust that someone out there needs to read it.
 
Something shifted in me.
 
I have a book that I started to write that's sitting in my notion board, and somewhere between app builds and product decisions I convinced myself it could wait.
 
Bruce reminded me that it can't. 

I never would have gotten that inspiration if I'd stayed home.
 
And Moriah... Well, every time I'm with her, I remember what it feels like to be around someone who is just... genuinely amazing. No performance. No agenda. Just real. The kind of human that makes your whole life better.
 
I build technology about human connection for a living, and I've been starving myself of it.
 
Not anymore.
 
I'm now saying yes to connection, even when the code is calling.

Said yes again last night.
 
A friend invited me to see Gogol Bordello, a gypsy punk band. 

Not a genre I know. Not a genre I would have chosen.
 
I almost said no.
 
I went anyway.
 
And for 3 hours I was completely, totally alive. High energy music, a crowd that gave everything they had, and my friend right beside me... and I got to see a whole new side of him I never would have seen across a dinner table.
 
That's the thing about saying yes to things that aren't your usual.
 
You don't just discover new music. You discover new layers of the people you care about.
 
I'm building apps to improve human connection. And I keep getting reminded that the best research is just... showing up. Being present. Letting something surprise you.
 
Gogol Bordello surprised me. So did the opening bands.
 
Good company, high energy, and memories I didn't see coming.
 
All because I said yes when everything in me wanted to say no.
 
Saying yes more. Still.

I was 30 years old when I completely changed careers so I could live a better life.
 
I had gone from being a fashion designer to a systems administrator in tech, with no degree.
 
From living in poverty to making a really decent salary in just 12 months.
 
I also got into cloud when I was 40.
 
I started off unemployed due to a layoff and made it to a high six-figure salary in 5 years.

And being 51, and starting to build apps. 

I just dove in and started building and it brought me the greatest joy.

What was my secret?
 
I stopped waiting to feel ready.
 
I let go of who I used to be so I could become who I needed to be.
 
I positioned myself near people who were already where I wanted to go.
 
I repeated things past the point of boredom until they became muscle memory.
 
I used the fear of going backward as fuel to move forward.
 
And I trusted myself enough to do it again when life demanded it.
 
 
Transformation is not a one-time event. It's a skill you build.
 
The first pivot might take a year. The next one takes less.
 
Not because it gets easier. Because you get better at becoming someone new.

Since Claude Opus 4.6 dropped, to say that it impressed me would be an understatement.
 
I code with it. I write with it. I use Claude Cowork as my assistant to handle the work I don't want to touch.

Which is why I switched from ChatGPT to Claude, and I've been telling everybody.

And then they ask me, "How can I do it?"
 
Here's Exactly How You Can Too.

1: Download Claude Desktop
Grab the desktop app for Mac or Windows and install it 
 
2: Export Your ChatGPT Conversations
Go to ChatGPT Settings -> Data Controls -> Export Data

Wait for the email and download the ZIP file when it arrives with everything you've ever said to ChatGPT.
 
3: Split the File with Claude Cowork
 
That export file is too big for Claude to handle in one shot, so you got to break it up. Open Claude Cowork and drop the JSON file into a chat and ask Claude:
 
"Split this ChatGPT export into smaller files by conversation. Each file should be under 100KB. Save them to a folder called 'ChatGPT_Archive'."
 
Claude will chunk it out and organize it for you.
 
4: Give Claude Context on Your Life
 
This is where it gets powerful. I imported everything. 3 years of ideas, projects, struggles, wins.

Start a new conversation and upload the split files one by one and ask Claude:
 
"Read through these conversations. Understand what I've been building, thinking about, and working on. I want you to have context on my life and ideas over the past X years."
 
Claude will absorb it. And when you come back later, it remembers.
 
You can also create a Project and upload key files there for long-term context around specific areas of your work or life.


You see, ChatGPT is fine, but Claude feels like it thinks with me, not at me.
 
It writes how I'd write if I had more patience, and codes like I'd code if I didn't second-guess myself.
 
And with Opus 4.6, it handles complexity without losing the thread.
 
I'm not saying abandon everything. I'm saying try it for a week.
 
Export your stuff. Bring it over. See if it clicks.
 
For me, it did.

Yesterday, I became a parent again.
 
Her name is Michi-San.
 
Over the weekend, Anette had an idea. What if MiruPulse had a coach? Not one that analyzes you from the outside. One that mirrors back exactly what she sees, so you can feel seen, and then actually do something about it.
 
She handed me the vision. I got to work bringing it to life.
 
Michi-San is a conversational coach built into MiruPulse. She reflects your patterns back to you. How you show up in conversations. What you might not be seeing. Not to judge. To illuminate.
 
Because you can't change what you can't see.
 
If you'd told me a year ago I'd be building conversational AI, I would have told you were crazy.

Pretty amazing at what can happen after 120 days of building software.
 
It changes what you think is possible, what you think you're capable of, what you think your life can look like.
 
And this is my life.
 
A new baby named Michi-San. A cofounder who inspires on weekends. A product that keeps becoming something I didn't know I was building.
 
So blessed.
 
She can't wait to meet you.

You're not scared of AI. 

You're scared of being left behind.

I keep hearing the same thing about AI.
 
"It's taking our jobs."
 
Maybe. But also... we're choosing to sit still while the world moves.
 
A designer I know spent 6 months complaining that AI was ruining their industry. Then they spent 2 weeks learning Midjourney. Now they're pitching concepts in hours instead of days and charging more.
 
A founder told me he couldn't afford a developer. I showed him how to vibe code. He built his MVP in a weekend, by himself.
 
I didn't know how to code 6 months ago. Now I'm building apps I couldn't even dream of.
 
The difference? I got uncomfortable. I built terrible prototypes. But I kept going.
 
Here's the truth: the gap between people who thrive in the next 5 years and people who don't won't be talent. 

It'll be willingness.
 
Willingness to look stupid while learning and to admit you don't know and figure it out anyway.
 
This is the 4th industrial revolution. The tools let one person do what used to take a team.
 
Stop waiting for it to get easier. Start now while it's messy and you have time to fail quietly.
 
Pick one AI tool this week. Learn it badly. Then learn it better.
 
The people who win aren't the ones who knew first. 

They're the ones who started anyway.

I knew exactly why his app was failing.

He couldn't keep users coming back to the platform after their first experience.
 
I never said a word.
 
He'd built an AI writing tool for social media. Good output. Real value. But using it felt like filling out a government form. 

Sterile. Flat. ChatGPT with a logo slapped on it.

For $49 a month.
 
He kept messaging his network. Begging for users. Pushing harder. I watched him work his LinkedIn connections in his posts to exhaustion, trying to outrun a leak he couldn't see.
 
I could see it.
 
I didn't say anything because I didn't have the heart. And honestly? I'm not sure I'd handle it differently today. Some truths feel too heavy to hand someone unsolicited.
 
I don't know what happened to him or the product. That not-knowing still sits with me.
 
Because the fix wasn't a rebuild. It wasn't a new feature or a better funnel.
 
It was one question. The one nobody asked him before he launched.
 
"When your user opens this for the first time, what do you want them to feel?"

5 years ago, building an app meant hiring a team, burning $75,000, and hoping it worked.  

Now? 

I can build one for $5,000 that feels seamless, secure, and alive in a few weeks.  

What people fail to realize is that it’s not just the tech that’s evolved. 
It’s how we design for humans.  

AI made building easier. 
Emotional intelligence made using it enjoyable. 
Because what people actually want isn’t more features, it’s more feeling.  

They want apps that reflect their voice, their rhythm, their brand’s heart.  

When I build, I’m not chasing efficiency. I’m building emotional flow.  

That’s what turns a good app into something people can’t stop showing off.  

If you’ve got an idea that’s been sitting in your notes app because it feels too big or too technical, let’s talk.  

You don’t need a dev team or a massive budget. 
You just need clarity.  

And someone who knows how to turn emotion into design.

4 years ago, I thought I'd left my technical career behind for good.
 
I traded systems and code for people and coaching. Convinced I'd never touch a keyboard for anything beyond writing.
 
Then Miru Pulse Inc. happened.
 
The past 5 months pulled me back into a world I thought I'd walked away from. Building an enterprise platform. Working with voice transcriptions. Experimenting with AI agents. Pushing integrations I hadn't thought about in years.
 
And now? I'm pivoting into building a mobile app.
 
Here's what I didn't expect: instead of feeling like I was going backward, I felt energized.
 
I realized my technical background wasn't something I outgrew. It was just... waiting. Waiting for the right problem. The right reason to come back.
 
Because this time it's different.
 
I'm not building tech for tech's sake. I'm building it for people. With emotional intelligence baked in, not bolted on.
 
My 25 years of stacking careers... fashion, cloud architecture, coaching, speaking... they all show up in what I'm building now. 

The empathy. The design thinking. The understanding of how humans actually behave.
 
I didn't see this coming. I genuinely thought that chapter was closed.
 
Turns out it was just on pause.
 
So here's what I'm sitting with: never write off parts of your past. 

They might just be preparing you for a future you didn't see coming.
 

Have you ever rediscovered an old skill at exactly the right time?

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Jonaed Iqbal

Antoni Tzavelas, ACC

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The Battle

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Antoni Tzavelas, ACC

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