Career Blast in a Half

What Your Kids Learn When You Lose Your Job | Alyssa Smith

Forget being the unshakeable parent. Your kids don’t need perfection — they need to see recovery in real time.
Because when layoffs hit, routines collapse, or rejection stings… your response becomes their blueprint for resilience.
Every career setback is a parenting masterclass — if you let it be.
Cost of silence: a generation that confuses failure with danger.Cost of honesty: courage passed down in motion.
In this episode, parenting coach and educator Alyssa Smith joins Loren Greiff to talk about what happens when career chaos collides with home life — and how to turn breakdowns into the best lessons your kids will ever see.
You’ll take away:
Why protecting your kids from every hard moment teaches fear, not safety
How to “name the hard, model the hope” when life hits sideways
The one line every parent crosses — and how to replace guilt with ownership
What happens when your kids see courage in motion
The quiet power of modeling self-care, boundaries, and bounce-back
From breakdown to breakthrough:Alyssa shares how years in Montessori classrooms — and a string of personal losses — reshaped her idea of what real strength looks like. Today, she helps parents trade chaos for calm and power struggles for connection, even when life (and work) don’t go as planned.
Because what your child remembers isn’t your job title.It’s how you rise when things fall apart.
Mic Drop: Courage isn’t static — it moves. Show them how.
Loved the episode?Learn more about Alyssa’s upcoming masterclass, The Pushback Paradox, and The Parent Reset: Love Your Kid Louder and follow her on LinkedIn
Follow Loren on LinkedInWatch Career Blast in a Half on YouTube

2025 Played It Safe. 2026 Pays the Disruptors I Loren Greiff

2025 was the year of playing not to lose.
2026 belongs to the ones willing to break the system.
 
Safe is the new stuck.
If you’re still polishing your résumé, chasing recruiters, or applying like it’s 2015, you’re invisible.
 
This isn’t motivation—it’s a warning.
The market no longer rewards experience; it rewards relevance.
 
Inside:
 
The lies you’re still buying: “Keep applying.” “Keep tweaking.” Stop.
The Wisdom Dividend: scars and judgment beat jargon and polish.
Keyword karaoke is dead. 2026 hires storytellers with proof, not buzzwords.
AI isn’t your threat—it’s your amplifier. Use it to think faster and prove value before you walk in the door.
Remote work is a privilege. Presence is power.
 
Stop waiting to be found. Get in their ear, and their circle.
 
You don’t wait for the next wave. You are the wave.
Play it safe, and you’ll drown.
Disrupt—and you’ll own the tide.
 
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Watch my podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpGM7j8croBkkZ4bLqN7DOQ/

The Death of Corporate Loyalty I Nick Passarelli — Chief Compliance Officer, Risk Whisperer, Truth Teller

Loyalty used to earn you a pension.Now it earns you a pink slip.
Nick Passarelli has protected billion-dollar companies from risk—and realized the biggest one was believing loyalty still mattered. From Wall Street to crypto to fintech, he’s watched good people blindsided for playing by outdated rules.
This isn’t about layoffs. It’s about liberation.Stop renting your security from a company that can revoke it overnight.
You need to listen if you’ve ever said:
“I’ve been here forever.” “They’d never let me go.” “I’ll just ride it out.”
Because:
If you’re “just holding on,” you’re already replaceable. Loyalty = Liability.
Hard Work ≠ job security and doing your job won’t protect it.
Just because you made the loyalty deal. The company didn’t. Reciprocity Is a Myth.
So how do you trade false loyalty for real leverage. It’s all in here.
Loved the episode? Subscribe!
Follow Nick here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-passarelli-9777454/
Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorengreiff/
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Watch my podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpGM7j8croBkkZ4bLqN7DOQ/
 

Urgent. Expensive. Unfair. The Question That Unlocks Everything I Loren Greiff

Executives over 40 are polishing themselves into irrelevance. New résumé formats. AI-ing to death, noodling over every tweak and keyword hack. Titles that don’t matter.
 All distractions. And none of it wins interview momentum or the offer
Here’s the only question that does knowing this: “What urgent and expensive problem do you have the unfair advantage to solve?”
That’s not theory—it’s survival math.
Not urgent? You’ll wait months.
Not expensive? They’ll nickel-and-dime you or label you as overqualified
No unfair advantage? You’re one of too many, and the offer goes to someone else. 
But when urgency, expense, and unfair advantage collide—you’re the bullseye. That’s where hiring budgets unlock. That’s how offers land.
In this episode you’ll hear:
Why companies don’t pay for passion or polish—they pay to stop bleeding.
The 3 filters every executive must pass before they’re taken seriously.
How to flip the script from “what job do I want?” to “where’s the fire, who’s paying, and why am I holding the hose?”
My own urgent + expensive + unfair advantage—and how it changes the game.
If your search feels like quicksand, if your severance is dwindling, if you’re sick of being overlooked—this is your pivot point.
Because polish is dead weight. The bullseye is the only target that matters.
 
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Watch my podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpGM7j8croBkkZ4bLqN7DOQ/

Being “Qualified” Won’t Get You Hired I Gina Riley

Being “Qualified” Won’t Get You Hired I Gina Riley
This week, Gina Riley isn’t pulling any punches – teasing out the highlights of her new book,  Qualified Isn’t Enough.
We leave nothing behind, cracking open with the truths most executives don’t want to hear—but need to:
Why résumés are an illusion – receipts, not strategies.
The blind spots that sabotage even the best pedigrees.
Why thought leadership, not passion, is the new differentiator.
Why the final round is where most leaders fail.
Gina has sat inside the boardroom, trained execs, and built a system to move you from overlooked to undeniable.
If being “qualified” was enough, you’d be hired. This episode explains why you’re not—and how to address it.
 
Connect with Gina:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginariley/
Book: https://amzn.to/3Kih0Bt
 
Loved the episode? Subscribe to it!
Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorengreiff/
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Watch my podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpGM7j8croBkkZ4bLqN7DOQ/

My Severance Is Running Out. Now What? Three Moves That Matter

My Severance Is Running Out. Now What? Three Moves That Matter.
Most people treat severance like a parachute. Safe. Cushioned. Time to drift.
Wrong. Severance isn’t a parachute—it’s a timer. And when it hits zero, panic sets in, options shrink, and desperation takes over.
This episode is about flipping that script. Turning panic into power with three moves that matter:
Stop polishing, start positioning. Resumés don’t win offers. Urgency does. Companies hire to stop the bleeding—find the problems only you can solve.
Treat networking like oxygen. 70–80% of hires happen in the hidden job market. That’s not a throwaway stat—a survival law. Block time daily, lead with curiosity, and end every conversation with “Who else should I talk to?”
Future-proof while you hunt. Smart execs don’t just chase the next paycheck. They build their next platform. Learn, share, and be seen—or fade into irrelevance.
Inside, you’ll also hear how to:
Spot neon signs of company pain—layoffs, compliance fines, churn, failed integrations.
Turn Glassdoor complaints from gossip into gold.
Use your unfair advantage to filter out noise and zero in on where you’re needed most.
If your severance clock is ticking, this episode gives you a sharper aim, stronger network, and a strategy that turns countdown into launchpad.

The Truth About PE Jobs: High Stakes, Hidden Rules, and Hard Lessons I Kit Lisle

The Truth About PE Jobs: High Stakes, Hidden Rules, and Hard Lessons I Kit Lisle
Private equity looks glamorous—fast money, big titles, big exits.
But the glossy promise hides a brutal truth: most execs flame out before they ever cash out.
Step into a PE-backed role and three things hit you at once:
Culture shock. The rules change overnight. Acronyms fly. Resources vanish.
The stamp. Survive a deal and you’re branded a pro athlete of business—faster, sharper, battle-tested.
The clock. From day one, it’s ticking. No 90-day ramp. Deliver value now.
In this episode, Kit Lisle—Army intelligence officer turned M&A strategist and founder of TheOperators.pe—pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to get hired into PE:
The myths that kill execs in interviews.
The red flags that get you crossed off instantly.
Why EQ matters more than spreadsheets.
And why job boards are useless when real opportunities live in relationships.
PE isn’t just another job. It’s a sprint, a test, and for those who make it, a career-defining badge of honor.
Thinking about a private equity role? Listen now. Because the truth isn’t in the job description—it’s in the hidden rules Kit Lisle reveals.

Why Say Thank You Anyway? I Steve Dalton, Author of The Job Closer & 2 Hour Job Search

Why Say Thank You Anyway? I Steve Dalton,  Author of The Job Closer & 2 Hour Job Search
 
Most thank-you notes are nothing more than polite spam.
They’re sent on autopilot, on reflex. That’s why they’re forgettable.
But what if your thank you’s worked as a strategy not a formality…
Even better, as he fastest way to turn a stranger into an advocate, to be referred, and re-invited?
Steve Dalton—is the author of The 2-Hour Job Search and The Job Closer (translated into 7 languages) —joins me to dismantle the myth of thank yous. 
 
Together we expose why:
Generic thank yous commoditize you. They disappear into inbox purgatory.
Bespoke gratitude compounds trust. It shows you heard, acted, and evolved.
Follow-through is the differentiator. Not words, but proof.
Gratitude is career capital. The cheapest, fastest way to turn strangers into advocates.
This isn’t about manners.It’s about leverage.
If you’re still treating thank you’s like a box to tick, you’re missing the single most underutilized tool in your job search arsenal.
Listen in—and start saying thank you in a way that actually counts.
 
Connect with Steve Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daltonsteve/
Books
https://2hourjobsearch.com/
https://www.thejobcloser.com/
Loved the episode?
Get a copy of my ebook Turn Age Into Your Advantage
Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorengreiff/
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Watch my podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpGM7j8croBkkZ4bLqN7DOQ/
 

Networking for Introverts Who’d Rather Get a Root Canal I Greg Roche

Networking for Introverts Who’d Rather Get a Root Canal I Greg Roche
Networking advice was built for extroverts.Go to events. Make small talk. Collect business cards.
For introverts, it feels like punishment. Exhausting. Fake. Pointless.
Greg Roche—known as The Introverted Networker—disagrees.He’s living proof you can grow a powerful network without awkward icebreakers, or pretending to be someone you’re not.
In this conversation, we expose the myths keeping executives stuck—and the truths that set introverts free:
Why “I don’t have time to network” is a myth
How 15 minutes a day beats every networking event
How to be “easy to help” so people actually follow through
The mic drop: The more connected we get through technology, the less connected we are as humans—because we’ve outsourced our humanness to tech
Plus, a simple, immediate action to restart your network today
This isn’t about becoming someone you’re not.It’s about using what makes you different to your advantage—and reclaiming the kind of human connection technology will never replace.
Whether you’re an introvert who dreads networking—or an extrovert who’s been doing it wrong—you’ll walk away with a playbook that actually works.
Connect with Greg Roche: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregsroche/
Get his book “The Fast and Easy Guide To Networking For Introverts” here
If this episode hit home, do us a solid: leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps the show grow, and it helps more executives discover how to thrive in the hidden job market.

Skip The Interview Prep, Lose the Job. Here’s How To Fix It I Varun Puri I CEO of Yoodli

Skip The Interview Prep, Lose the Job. Here’s How To Fix It I Varun Puri I CEO of Yoodli
Most people treat interviews like pop quizzes.They wing it. Then wonder why they keep coming in second.
Here’s the thing:
If  you don’t rise to the occasion. You sink to the level of your practice.And even for most execs? That level can be none.
Varun Puri—ex-Google, debate shark, and co-founder of Yoodli—is done watching smart people blow it because they never practiced the one thing that matters: how they sound when it counts.
Yoodli isn’t a coach. And, It’s not “content.”It’s your AI interview  sparring partner— built to catch every “um,” dodge every ramble, and turn your half-baked answers into mic-drop moments.
That’s why Korn Ferry, Google, Snowflake, Databricks, and use it—because nothing kills a deal faster than a boring, muddled interview.  
In this episode:
The painful reason brilliant execs still tank interviews
The three invisible habits that scream “don’t hire me”
How to stack 15,000 practice reps without begging for anyone’s time
Why public speaking fear beats fear of death (and what to do about it)
What actually changes when feedback is instant and can’t be ignored
Listen now. Or keep losing to the person who did.