No One Tells You This: A Real Work Ready™ Podcast

You Do Not Have to Figure This Out Alone | with Dr. Lindsey Plewa

Real Work Ready The professional readiness program built for years 0 to 5 of a career. Six learnable behaviors that determine how your work gets received, planned, communicated, and delivered. Nobody teaches them. Now someone does. Learn more: www.realworkready.com [https://www.realworkready.com] Most people are navigating their careers without the manual. Nobody tells you what hiring managers are actually thinking. Nobody tells you that waiting to be noticed is one of the most costly mistakes you can make. Nobody tells you that the strongest professionals you will ever meet are the ones who figured out how to ask for help. Dr. Lindsey Plewa has spent over 15 years on the inside of the career process, as a career coach, speaker, and higher education professional at Baruch College in New York City. She has seen what early professionals get wrong before they even know they are getting it wrong. In this conversation, she says out loud what most people never hear until it is too late. In this episode: * The unspoken rules of hiring and career growth that nobody puts in a job description or an onboarding guide * Why you are the one in charge of your career and what it actually costs you when you wait for someone else to advocate for you * How self-awareness becomes a real competitive advantage and what tools like CliftonStrengths change in practice * Why the strongest professionals you know are the ones who ask for help, and what building the right support system actually looks like Real Work Ready If this conversation made you realize there are things nobody told you, that is exactly what Real Work Ready is built for. The program gives early professionals the operating system for a career that lasts. Get started: www.realworkready.com [https://www.realworkready.com] Connect with Lindsey: Website: lindseyplewa.com [https://www.lindseyplewa.com] Instagram: @coachlindseyplewa [https://www.instagram.com/coachlindseyplewa] LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lindseyplewa [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseyplewa] Connect with Laura: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti/] Instagram: @realworkreadyhq [https://www.instagram.com/realworkreadyhq] Email: info@realworkready.com Website: realworkready.com [https://www.realworkready.com] No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them: the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com [http://www.realworkready.com/]

The Builder Mentality Nobody Teaches You Before You Start | with Jennifer Viens

Most professionals take one path or the other. You either build something from scratch in the startup world, or you learn to operate at scale inside a large organization. Very few people have done both — and almost nobody teaches what you learn from the combination. Jennifer Viens is a senior enterprise leader who has spent her career at the intersection of AI, data, and cloud — scaling complex businesses across healthcare, life sciences, and the public sector. But before the Fortune 500 world, she was in startups — where you own the outcome completely, the client relationship is everything, and there is no system to hide behind. That combination gives her a perspective most executives simply don’t have. In this conversation, she breaks down the builder mentality — what it is, why a clear vision and a client-first mindset are the foundation of everything, and what professionals who start with that operating system are able to build that everyone else can’t. In this episode: * What the builder mentality actually is — and why the startup world develops it faster and more completely than any corporate environment ever will * Why having a clear vision and staying close to the client are not soft skills — they are the operating system that everything else runs on * What building the right ecosystem around sales and growth actually requires — and the clarity of vision that startup founders develop that most corporate professionals never do * The first move someone early in their career can make to start operating like a builder — regardless of their title, their company, or how much authority they have Real Work Ready helps early professionals build the operating system for a career that lasts. Learn more at realworkready.com [https://www.realworkready.com] Connect with Jennifer Viens: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-viens/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-viens/] Connect with Laura: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realworkreadyhq [https://www.instagram.com/realworkreadyhq] Email: info@realworkready.com Website: https://www.realworkready.com [https://www.realworkready.com] No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready™ podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them — the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com [http://www.realworkready.com/]

How to Build a Career on Your Strengths Before Fear Builds One for You | with Chris Woods

Most people who look successful on paper are running on something they can’t quite name. Not ambition. Not drive. Fear. And the problem is, fear is an excellent motivator — right up until it isn’t. Chris Woods grew up without a father in a blue-collar neighborhood of Boston, put himself through college, earned an MBA from NYU Stern, rose through Google, and went on to serve as Global Chief Growth Officer for four investor-backed companies. At 40 years old — exactly the age his father was when he died — he flatlined in a hospital bed. That moment forced him to look honestly at how he had been defining success. He is now a certified executive coach and author of Balls and Brains — a framework for building a career on your real strengths instead of your deepest fears. This conversation is the one he wishes someone had played for him at the start. In this episode: * What fear-driven behavior actually looks like early in a career — when it looks exactly like ambition, hustle, and doing all the right things * What flatlining at the same age his father died forced Chris to confront about how he had been defining success * The difference between a career built on your strengths and one built on what you think you’re supposed to be * The first move someone early in their career can make right now to start operating from strength instead of fear Real Work Ready helps early professionals build the operating system for a career that lasts. Learn more at realworkready.com [https://www.realworkready.com] Connect with Chris: Website: https://chriswoodscoach.com [https://chriswoodscoach.com] Book: https://ballsandbrains.com [https://ballsandbrains.com] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswoodsglobal/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswoodsglobal/] Email: chriswoodsglobal@gmail.com Connect with Laura: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realworkreadyhq [https://www.instagram.com/realworkreadyhq] Email: info@realworkready.com Website: https://www.realworkready.com [https://www.realworkready.com] No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready™ podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them — the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com [http://www.realworkready.com/]

Most Companies Don’t Have a CX Problem. They Have a Decision Problem. | with Sonia Etxebarria

Every day inside your organization, small decisions are being made — a new step added, a rule tightened, a process introduced. Each one seems logical. Together, they slowly make the company harder to deal with. And nobody notices, because from the inside, everything feels more controlled. Sonia Etxebarria has spent 30 years helping some of the world’s largest companies — including Toyota, Endesa, and Renfe — see what they can’t see from the inside. As founder of Akuyari and co-author of Profitable Customer Experience, she has a sharp diagnosis for why organizations keep getting this wrong: it is not a CX problem. It is a decision problem. In this conversation, she breaks down what that means, what it costs, and what every early professional needs to understand about the gap between what organizations say they value and what they actually do. In this episode: * Why most companies think they have a customer experience problem — when the real issue is how decisions get made * What the small business world teaches about accountability and client focus that large organizations slowly unlearn * What early professionals can actually do — without authority or budget — to start operating with a customer-centred mindset from day one * The mindset shift that separates professionals who create real impact from those who stay busy without moving forward Real Work Ready helps early professionals build the operating system for a career that lasts. Learn more at realworkready.com [https://www.realworkready.com] Connect with Sonia: Website: https://www.soniaetxebarria.com [https://www.soniaetxebarria.com] Akuyari: https://www.akuyari.com [https://www.akuyari.com] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-etxebarria/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-etxebarria/] Email: sonia@soniaetxebarria.com Connect with Laura: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realworkreadyhq [https://www.instagram.com/realworkreadyhq] Email: info@realworkready.com Website: https://www.realworkready.com [https://www.realworkready.com] No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready™ podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them — the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com [http://www.realworkready.com/]

You Don’t Have a Growth Problem. You Have a Leverage Problem. with Stephen “Mr SOS” Solademi

If your business feels busy but fragile — if the growth stops the moment you ease off the gas — you don’t have a marketing problem. You have a leverage problem. Stephen Solademi has spent his career diagnosing exactly that gap. As founder of SOS Creativity Group, he has helped Shopify e-commerce brands and DTC founders generate over £120M in revenue — not by chasing more traffic, but by building the fundamentals that compound. His firm operates on a performance model: growth first, payment follows. In this conversation, he breaks down what the leverage gap actually is, what it takes to build something that lasts, and what every early professional needs to understand about the difference between looking busy and actually moving forward. In this episode: * Why most businesses have a leverage problem — not a traffic problem — and what that distinction actually means * What leading multiple acquisitions and building teams under pressure taught Stephen about what holds a business together * The difference between growth that compounds and growth that collapses the moment you stop pushing * What early professionals and aspiring builders consistently get wrong about success — and what to do instead Real Work Ready helps early professionals build the operating system for a career that lasts. Learn more at realworkready.com [https://www.realworkready.com/] Connect with Stephen: Website: https://soscreativity.co.uk [https://soscreativity.co.uk/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soscreativity/ [https://www.instagram.com/soscreativity/] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephensolademi/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephensolademi/] Connect with Laura: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramassetti/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realworkreadyhq [https://www.instagram.com/realworkreadyhq] Email: info@realworkready.com Website: https://www.realworkready.com [https://www.realworkready.com/] No One Tells You This is a Real Work Ready™ podcast. Every episode is a conversation with leaders, executives, and professionals who finally decided to say what nobody said to them — the unwritten rules, the invisible dynamics, and the things that actually determine who succeeds. Laura Massetti Founder of Real Work Ready™  www.realworkready.com [http://www.realworkready.com/]