Speaker 1: Hey, Hey, Hey, we're back. We're black, We're Brown, and
Speaker 1: I am writing solo. It's your Girl, Mandy aka Mandy Money,
Speaker 1: and I am not going to be alone for much longer, y'all.
Speaker 1: For eight years, my little brother, Alex Woodruff has been
Speaker 1: petitioning to be a guest on Brown Ambition, and finally
Speaker 1: he asked at the right time. I have never been
Speaker 1: more impressed with him as not just a career professional,
Speaker 1: but also from a financial perspective. What he's managed to
Speaker 1: do just by the tender age of thirty one. I
Speaker 1: can't believe he's old, but also that makes me so
Speaker 1: much older. But anyway, he has paid off a condo,
Speaker 1: paid off fifty K of student loan debt, built his
Speaker 1: own beautiful, gigantic home in the heart of our hometown
Speaker 1: of Atlanta. He has an Airbnb property, and on top
Speaker 1: of that, he is a badass tech sales rep for
Speaker 1: multiple companies like IBM and Salesforce. And did I even
Speaker 1: mention that he has this new, thriving creative endeavor as
Speaker 1: a filmmaker. So I am inviting my little brother, my
Speaker 1: little brother Alex, on the show today and I hope
Speaker 1: that you all enjoy this conversation. All right, so you know,
Speaker 1: now I have this, I'm well, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know what to call myself. And people say, like,
Speaker 1: what do you do now, I'm like, I do a
Speaker 1: lot of things, but one of the core things is
Speaker 1: I have the Manny money Maker career coaching community, which
Speaker 1: I've just started in the last couple of years. And
Speaker 1: You've always been very supportive of that. Thank you. But
Speaker 1: it was sort of exciting for me in a sick,
Speaker 1: kind of weird way. Again, I'm a terrible person. Unlike yourself.
Speaker 1: You're very pure. But when you got let.
Speaker 2: Go, when it happened to you, you were few important
Speaker 2: things like this in public you could have.
Speaker 3: You never told me that you liked it when I
Speaker 3: got laid off.
Speaker 1: Well, and from the sense of like, I love it
Speaker 1: when anyone comes to me with a real life career
Speaker 1: conundrum and I'm like, ooh, data and project and I
Speaker 1: want to watch this story unfold so I can learn
Speaker 1: to make me a better coach, you know, and yeah,
Speaker 1: so when you but also there's my therapist asked me,
Speaker 1: She's like, what is it about you and Alex that
Speaker 1: you think makes you guys have so much faith in
Speaker 1: yourself for success or whatever, and I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't really know what's to put up on my finger
Speaker 1: on it, but like, I'm not worried about either of us.
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about you. I'm not worried about There's
Speaker 1: no real sense of getting let go could derail Alex's success,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? The same way for me,
Speaker 1: Like if tomorrow, god forbid, they take away Brown ambition,
Speaker 1: I don't know who is in charge of that, no one,
Speaker 1: because we own it. But whatever, I'll I'll find some way,
Speaker 1: like I'll be okay. So I feel like when you
Speaker 1: came to me with, you know, unfortunately being let go.
Speaker 1: While I was concerned and I wanted to help you,
Speaker 1: I also like wasn't I was like, oh, like he'll
Speaker 1: bounce back. He's going to be fine, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So that's why I think I could like
Speaker 1: take myself out of it and be like ooh project
Speaker 1: and like it's fun. But I want you to talk
Speaker 1: about that because I think you're such an incredible example.
Speaker 1: And I told you this at the time of professional
Speaker 1: resilience and someone who you know, you were at this
Speaker 1: place for less than a year or just about a year.
Speaker 2: It was less than a year. It was around nine
Speaker 2: ten months.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're like me a job hopper, So how
Speaker 1: many this was like your how many jobs? And I
Speaker 1: don't know how many jobs did you have up to
Speaker 1: this point? How many years?
Speaker 2: An unwilling job hopper. I'm I'm searching for long term commitment.
Speaker 2: I think I found.
Speaker 1: It, Like we could hear that bill.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was not trying to like.
Speaker 2: Job like hop from the next thing to the next thing.
Speaker 2: It's when you're in the startup world in tech this
Speaker 2: can happen. It's kind of the risk you take when
Speaker 2: you go from an IBM or a salesforce, which is
Speaker 2: where I worked out of college, into the startup world
Speaker 2: where it's a lot faster, a lot looser, and you
Speaker 2: don't necessarily know what's going to happen. The flip side
Speaker 2: of that is that you can have massive earning potentials.
Speaker 2: You have a lot of autonomy to run yourself and
Speaker 2: your business like it's your business. And it speaks to
Speaker 2: me more going back to what we talked about earlier,
Speaker 2: it speaks to who I am to work at a
Speaker 2: company that I know, the CEO, I have a relationship
Speaker 2: with that person, and I know what we stand for
Speaker 2: and I can reflect that. So yeah, getting laid off
Speaker 2: is tough. It was very, very startling because I think
Speaker 2: highly of myself and so while I wasn't shocked because
Speaker 2: I knew that as a company we weren't performing and
Speaker 2: as an individual I could have been doing better, but
Speaker 2: I was definitely surprised. I thought that it wouldn't if
Speaker 2: it was going to happen, I thought I would have
Speaker 2: been safe. So there's a couple of things I want
Speaker 2: to say, Like, definitely I have a chip my shoulder.
Speaker 2: And when you talk about you always knew I was
Speaker 2: going to be okay. You're not worried about me, You're
Speaker 2: not worried about you. Like I'm going to be okay
Speaker 2: because I'm going to make sure that whoever made that
Speaker 2: decision regrets it one way or another.
Speaker 3: And they probably won't.
Speaker 2: They don't know, so you do have like in my head, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I want to like make them regret it. I want
Speaker 2: them to be like saying that dumb shit, Like that's
Speaker 2: what I want. And so I'm going to force that
Speaker 2: to happen. And so Fiddler, where I work is getting
Speaker 2: the hardest working version of me, like possible. It is
Speaker 2: the I'm on go mode right now because I need
Speaker 2: to validate not only to myself but to this imaginary
Speaker 2: hater who I've created in my head, who thinks like
Speaker 2: I'm going to fail.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna flyp like that. That is how I operate.
Speaker 2: But on the other end of it, in terms of
Speaker 2: like when it happened and the fear that I had
Speaker 2: two reasons I wasn't really afraid. One is that my
Speaker 2: girlfriend has my back, like she financially can help us
Speaker 2: out and get us through a period of lean time.
Speaker 2: And then the other thing, it's not all that lean
Speaker 2: over here. I'm doing okay, Like I'm not scraping the bottom.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a lot of cash in the bank,
Speaker 1: which you expressed to me, but you didn't have an airbnb.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, what's the worst that can happen?
Speaker 2: Now my massive house and make a bunch of money
Speaker 2: off of it, and then by the time I'm done
Speaker 2: doing that, I have a new job, and.
Speaker 3: Like you just got to be able to be adaptable, Like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted this.
Speaker 2: House, but what if it doesn't work out, that's okay,
Speaker 2: Like I need what's actually important to me as a
Speaker 2: human it isn't this house, it's not this neighborhood, it's
Speaker 2: not the job that I was in at the time.
Speaker 2: It's like, how do I ensure that I'm not losing
Speaker 2: sight of what's actually important to me?
Speaker 3: And so when I got laid off, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: It was scary for a little bit, but once I
Speaker 2: started thinking about it, and I'm like, I'll be fine.
Speaker 2: I'm going to handle this and no matter what, nothing's
Speaker 2: off the table as long as you know, me and
Speaker 2: the people who I love are protected and we're fine,
Speaker 2: and maybe we live in a smaller place, maybe we
Speaker 2: rent for a while. None of those things ended up happening.
Speaker 2: I got a new job in like three weeks.
Speaker 1: But like, yes, so let's talk about that. Yeah, first
Speaker 1: of all, your first your first correct step was to
Speaker 1: call me.
Speaker 2: I called you almost immediately, right, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's extremely pregnant and you know, about to pop any.
Speaker 3: You were like any moment.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm like, hey, wait, we're kind of putting a
Speaker 1: date on it. And if we do that, do you
Speaker 1: think that matters? You've been pregnant twice, Oh, you're right, Well,
Speaker 1: you know pro life, I've been pregnant.
Speaker 3: Sleuthing that hard, I'm fine with.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, Okay, Okay, yeah, so of course you
Speaker 1: called me right away, and I just pro life, I've
Speaker 1: been pregnant three times.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: I just I just I caught up with you.
Speaker 1: Stick around, kid, you'll learn some stuff today. All right.
Speaker 1: So you called me up. We talked about it, and
Speaker 1: like immediately I feel like you were it was your
Speaker 1: full time job to be looking for work, and like
Speaker 1: quickly talk about a few things that you did that
Speaker 1: you feel like three weeks later you had an incredible
Speaker 1: Not only did you have an incredible job, because we
Speaker 1: got to the negotiation, which is also so fun for
Speaker 1: me to like have a backseat to watching you negotiate
Speaker 1: because I love seeing it happen in real time. But
Speaker 1: you had options in three weeks. It wasn't just like
Speaker 1: I got a break, It was you had two or
Speaker 1: three potential opportunities. So I think it's really crucial for
Speaker 1: people to understand how that came to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, I mean it's just like when you brought
Speaker 2: up how I lost hope in college. It was the
Speaker 2: same exact scenario.
Speaker 1: Like I got hope scholarship, not hope in his life.
Speaker 2: Oh, you're right, I forget people aren't fromantic.
Speaker 3: I lost the Hope scholarship.
Speaker 2: I'm not hope as a person. Yeah, I lost a
Speaker 2: scholarship that I had going to college and that was
Speaker 2: that was a big wake up call. It reminded me
Speaker 2: to keep the main thing the main thing, and understand
Speaker 2: what my floor is and for me, in order to
Speaker 2: do everything I love and everything that's important to me,
Speaker 2: I need to be a highly functional software or sales executive.
Speaker 2: And if the place I was at I wasn't able
Speaker 2: to do that or deliver, I need to go and
Speaker 2: fix that first. If I don't, everything else is now
Speaker 2: under threat. I can't invest in my movies, I can't
Speaker 2: have a lifestyle I want to live. I can't you know,
Speaker 2: put into my retirement, et cetera. So it was extremely important,
Speaker 2: I put to your point, I was like my full
Speaker 2: time job for that three weeks was to find a job.
Speaker 3: In terms of how I got the options I have developed.
Speaker 2: Over the course of my career, A good reputation, and
Speaker 2: several really important mentors, people who have vouched for me,
Speaker 2: people who have supported me along my process. One of
Speaker 2: them is Seth Dobrin, who at the time was the
Speaker 2: president of the Responsible AI Institute, which I'm a board
Speaker 2: advisor for, and he connected me with a few people
Speaker 2: immediately as.
Speaker 1: Well as Exponsible AI, the Responsible AI Institute. Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 3: He connected with me with people.
Speaker 2: I was on LinkedIn, you know, doing what I do
Speaker 2: from a state sales perspective, but now looking for a
Speaker 2: job and I'm the product.
Speaker 3: So it was very it felt natural.
Speaker 2: It was scary for the first few days, but then
Speaker 2: I started getting interviews and then you start then I'm
Speaker 2: in the mode, right, I'm I'm Max.
Speaker 1: So you reach out to seth, you reach out to
Speaker 1: the mentors, like via LinkedIn or email or whatever, let
Speaker 1: them know. Do you tell them? Because I get this
Speaker 1: question sometimes, should I tell people I've been let go?
Speaker 3: What you need to think about? What was your p
Speaker 3: That's a fair question, I think.
Speaker 1: And you had a lot of concern about reputational risk too,
Speaker 1: until the stigma warranted and valid.
Speaker 2: Reputational risk because it wasn't my first time leaving a startup.
Speaker 2: Right in the prior year, I had left a company
Speaker 2: and went to a startup and then that startup folded.
Speaker 2: I didn't get let go, but I had to get
Speaker 2: out because it was under a lot of pressure. So
Speaker 2: I left for another startup, and then that startup laid
Speaker 2: me off. So like, for me, my reputation as a
Speaker 2: job hopper is not something that I think is valuable
Speaker 2: in my career. I don't want that reputation. I want
Speaker 2: the best opportunity for me. Don't get me wrong, but
Speaker 2: I don't want to be looked at as a job hopper.
Speaker 2: I want to go somewhere and deliver and be looked
Speaker 2: at as Wow, I'm glad that person was here.
Speaker 3: So I was worried, yeah, about who I reached out to.
Speaker 2: And I think for anyone listening, it's important to think
Speaker 2: about what your reputation is with somebody before you reach
Speaker 2: out to them and tell him you were let go,
Speaker 2: Because if they don't think that highly of you, and
Speaker 2: you were reaching out to them and letting them know
Speaker 2: bad news about you and asking them for help, like
Speaker 2: maybe you should find someone else.
Speaker 1: Their reputation could be at stake as well. You know,
Speaker 1: they have to really well like if they will, because
Speaker 1: they may decide not to vouch for you just for
Speaker 1: fear that if they do, like they don't really trust
Speaker 1: that it'll reflect, you know, well on them. But if
Speaker 1: someone knows you, they're like, oh, Alex was Alex ended
Speaker 1: up here? Not because he's not great, but because you
Speaker 1: know some thing's happened to Alex. I'm still going to
Speaker 1: vouch for Alex as the product, you.
Speaker 3: Know, absolutely, and you don't want to.
Speaker 2: It's always you're always trying to build the best reputation
Speaker 2: for yourself with everyone in your network that you possibly can.
Speaker 2: So if somebody already doesn't think that highly of me
Speaker 2: or is not a huge fan of mine, I'm not
Speaker 2: bringing them bad news.
Speaker 3: That's not a valuable investment on my end.
Speaker 2: I'm going to wait to pull up on them after
Speaker 2: I have some good news so that I can improve
Speaker 2: that impression that they have with me. So I'm going
Speaker 2: to the people to your point who already think highly
Speaker 2: of me, who know that if I was let go.
Speaker 2: You know, it's like when you have a breakup, you
Speaker 2: go to that friend who's going to be like, man,
Speaker 2: they were bugging, Like that's who you want to go
Speaker 2: to in this environment. You want to go to somebody
Speaker 2: who supports.
Speaker 1: You, yeah, and then would vouch for you. So that
Speaker 1: led you to a couple of not just interviews, but
Speaker 1: like because you're niching into and people who want to
Speaker 1: break into tech, I feel like listen up because like
Speaker 1: you targeting were you specifically targeting startups? Because I feel
Speaker 1: like that because it's such a smaller sort of I
Speaker 1: don't know, like companies small fewer people in between you
Speaker 1: and leadership, You're able to get that FaceTime with leadership
Speaker 1: pretty quick, you know, versus like applying to Meta or
Speaker 1: Google and you know, going into this huge stratosphere that's
Speaker 1: just like it's hard to break into.
Speaker 2: You need to understand what your leverage is. So for
Speaker 2: me and the skill set I have and the track
Speaker 2: record I have, I have the ability to go to
Speaker 2: a startup who needs the job that I do, which
Speaker 2: is sales, and say you should consider me. Right, But
Speaker 2: if you're brand new and trying to break into the
Speaker 2: tech space and you're trying to get a job like
Speaker 2: the one I have right now, it might be more
Speaker 2: beneficial for you to go to a bigger company who
Speaker 2: is hiring more people at once, who has a training
Speaker 2: program like what I did when I joined IBM. Right,
Speaker 2: that would be maybe a good use of your time.
Speaker 2: Because if you go to a startup. They're expecting you
Speaker 2: to be ready made. They want you to have gone
Speaker 2: through training already. They want you to be ready to
Speaker 2: literally join and Fiddler, I was having meetings with customers
Speaker 2: like a week after I joined, because I.
Speaker 3: Already knew the space.
Speaker 2: I was already you know, enough of it expert to
Speaker 2: be able.
Speaker 1: To They don't have time to train.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they didn't need to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they didn't want to have to train anyone. So
Speaker 2: that's the leverage I had coming in. If I were
Speaker 2: brand new and I were trying to get into a
Speaker 2: sales job, I would go somewhere with a training program
Speaker 2: that allows me to generate more skills and a track
Speaker 2: record of success. And then if I decide eventually I
Speaker 2: want to be in startups, which is how my career
Speaker 2: you know, uh went, then I can do that. And
Speaker 2: now a startup is a lot more likely to look
Speaker 2: at me because I have a track record of success
Speaker 2: and I've been trained already, you know, a valuable program.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, that's really helpful. I think that that's
Speaker 1: really good to note as well. Like, and I bring
Speaker 1: up IBM because I've got some clients who work for IBM,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, shout out to the big companies who
Speaker 1: give people a foundation of experience. Yeah, so there's no
Speaker 1: shade to going to a big old company. But I
Speaker 1: think what's great is that you weren't afraid to change
Speaker 1: your mind and you weren't afraid to go in a
Speaker 1: different direction. And I recently heard a statistic that was
Speaker 1: like the highest and this is a basketball reference. Okay,
Speaker 1: so obviously I don't know what I'm talking about, but
Speaker 1: this stat was like the top five highest scoring players
Speaker 1: were also the top five highest missed basket players. What
Speaker 1: do you call that brick?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so like they had the bricks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you do conference field goals missed, so they probably
Speaker 2: had the most.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because they're shooting a lot o basketball.
Speaker 1: That's not a field goal, is it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's called a field goal. It's confusing. This is
Speaker 2: a tough what it is?
Speaker 1: Yeah, the thing that Shaq can't do. That's a field goal.
Speaker 2: That's a free throw?
Speaker 1: Oh feel a free okay anyway, Yeah, but my point
Speaker 1: is like in order to get the wins, get the house,
Speaker 1: get the airbnb, you know, get the debt paid off,
Speaker 1: you had to make like a lot of like take
Speaker 1: some risks, like go for it, you know, and the
Speaker 1: layoff being one of the times that it didn't that
Speaker 1: you could perceive it as like, oh, took that shot,
Speaker 1: it didn't pay off. But look at all the things that,
Speaker 1: you know, all the chances you did take that did
Speaker 1: pay off. And I feel like a lot of people
Speaker 1: that I work with and even who listen to the
Speaker 1: show just are like love coming back because it's like
Speaker 1: giving you permission, helping you feel safer, you know, taking
Speaker 1: that shot, because failing is yeah, failing is scary. I
Speaker 1: have failed. I will fail, you know in the future
Speaker 1: with some projects that I pursue. But I'm also going
Speaker 1: to really succeed because I'm going to keep doing stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, That's why I loved when you first
Speaker 2: started the show, Like I'm a I'm an artist, so
Speaker 2: I vibe with concepts and name and even brands and logos.
Speaker 2: Thanks to wearing ours again. By the way, follow us
Speaker 2: at Pineapple cut Pictures on Instagram, or you can follow
Speaker 2: me at alex J Woodriff. I may not be on
Speaker 2: in a few months.
Speaker 1: I might have to leave, you should have said at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the show, as I will. That's what
Speaker 1: most listenership is. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like the Brown ambition, the name it speaks
Speaker 2: to everything you just said. It's like you have to
Speaker 2: have that be your affirmation. Be ambitious, be audacious when
Speaker 2: you have the ability to, Like, those are things that
Speaker 2: have served me very well. Is when I know that
Speaker 2: I understand what it is I'm doing, I'm good. Those
Speaker 2: are the times to be audacious. Those are the times
Speaker 2: to try to go a step further than maybe where
Speaker 2: you'd be comfortable, and that's how you're going to For example,
Speaker 2: I built the house after I first bought a condo.
Speaker 2: That was pretty audacious, but I did have a little
Speaker 2: bit of a foundation because I had renovated my condo.
Speaker 2: So those things, you know, are important to try. And
Speaker 2: now whatever I do next, who knows, right, but it's
Speaker 2: going to be something that's audacious because that's just part
Speaker 2: of my DNA.
Speaker 1: I mean direct writing and directing your first features sary
Speaker 1: short yeah, short film, Yeah, I've learned that from Project
Speaker 1: green Light. It's a short, but still it's really freaking amazing.
Speaker 1: I wish I could be there in person to see it.
Speaker 1: But I want to end on that note, just like
Speaker 1: talking about the audacity of Brown ambition and how you
Speaker 1: persona by that, and I'm just so damn proud of you, baby.
Speaker 2: Bro, thank you so much, and the feeling is way mutual.
Speaker 3: I'm so happy. I wish TIF could be here. I
Speaker 3: tell her too.
Speaker 1: But y'all, maybe you'll come back on the show.
Speaker 2: I want to be back.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, you know if you're watching the
Speaker 3: reviews on this one, like the I want to get
Speaker 3: the I want to get.
Speaker 1: The listening, well, I don't know, you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: be on i G because like that's where the BA
Speaker 1: fan is on IG interacting with our clips. Also, you
Speaker 1: can listen to this on or watch on YouTube if
Speaker 1: you want to see how much Alex may Or may
Speaker 1: not look like me, y'all me, I am the original doppelganger,
Speaker 1: not Drake. Yes, people, then no one used to say
Speaker 1: you look like Drake when.
Speaker 3: His hair goes down. Yeah, it's pretty uncanny.
Speaker 1: How much we look like m Yeah, but you know
Speaker 1: you'll always be number one, all right, Alex James Mischief.
Speaker 3: Thank wow.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: It was either it was either the Pineapple cut shirt
Speaker 1: or the Harry Potter Sorcerer's Stone T shirt that you
Speaker 1: gave me. That I couldn't find.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's the shirt I brought you. Okay, I knew
Speaker 3: i'd brought you a shirt.
Speaker 1: That's what, and I knew it wasn't Pineapple Cut, But
Speaker 1: you know what, I just moved on from that, but
Speaker 1: you came around, all right. Thank you Alex for joining
Speaker 1: Brown Ambition. You guys please run to go follow Pineapple
Speaker 1: Cut Pictures on ig where you can stay abreast of
Speaker 1: all the news you've got. Your your shorts are entering
Speaker 1: film festivals, and I hope people get a chance to
Speaker 1: see My Sore Magic, which is just so cute, so
Speaker 1: sweet and adorable and heart you know, heartwarming and beautifully shot,
Speaker 1: just gorgeous the colors, I mean, so much of it.
Speaker 1: And also Forgive Us is one of the films that
Speaker 1: really whoa very different than My Sore Magic, but another
Speaker 1: short that you all have done. And good luck this
Speaker 1: weekend making your first film.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I won't try to call our text you don't worry,
Speaker 1: but I will. You won't answer.
Speaker 3: That's good.
Speaker 1: Focus on the art.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I will be very very busy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's so dope. All right. Bye,