Sis, Me Too!
Sis, Me Too, is the podcast where we get real about adulting, navigating life after college, and all the messy, beautiful moments in between. Hosted by Lauren Martin, we’re here to share stories, swap advice, and remind you that it’s totally okay not to have it all figured out. No judgment, just real talk and a whole lot of “me too” moments. So join us as we laugh, reflect, and tackle this crazy thing called life—together. You’ve got this, sis! 💞
Sis, Me Too!
Juggling a Full-Time Job & a Business + Establishing Boundaries + Navigating the Job Market
Sis, if you’ve been feeling the pressure while searching for your next job or juggling your side hustle with your 9-to-5, this episode is for you!
In this episode of the Sis, Me Too! podcast, your girl Lauren Martin chats with the amazing Kahli Matthews and Madison Smith, co-founders of KHM Career Services.
These two besties have been through it all—starting as career advisors at UNC Charlotte to launching their own business helping people just like YOU with career development. They’re sharing all the real about the ups and downs of balancing a full-time job with building a business, along with all the wisdom they’ve gained along the way. 💡
If you’ve ever felt discouraged about applying for jobs or not hearing back, Kahli and Madison drop some powerful advice on how to stay motivated, give yourself grace, and keep pushing forward.
It’s all about helping others succeed, and you’ll definitely leave this episode feeling empowered and inspired. So grab your favorite snack, settle in, and get ready for some major sisterhood vibes, real talk, and tips you can actually use to level up your career game. You don’t want to miss this one, sis! 💖
Wanna connect with Kahli & Madison? ✨
KMH Career Services:
Instagram: Khmcareerservices
Business Website: Khmcareerservices.com
Kahli's Information:
Facebook: Thatchickk_kay & PoetrybyK
Madison's Information:
Instagram: madisons.mith
💞 Enjoyed this episode? Share it with a friend to grow our sisterhood!
🌟 Have thoughts to share? Leave us a review—it means the world to us!
📺 Watch this episode on YouTube: Sis, Me Too! Podcast Channel
If you’re a young professional woman of color, check out our online community, Soul Sisters, where we navigate the ups and downs of adulthood together.
Learn more at mysoulsis.com
Let’s keep thriving together, sis! ✨
Hey, hey, hey, welcome to the Sis, me too! podcast where we dive into the real, the raw and the relatable moments of adulting. I'm your sis Lauren Martin and today I'm with Kahli and Madison, two of the three powerhouses behind KHM Career Services. With a shared background in serving as career advisors at UNC Charlotte, they decided to take the leap and start their own career services business to help craft career that propel individuals toward their professional dreams. Again, welcome Kahli and Madison. I am so honored and thrilled to have you all as our guests today. Hi, thrilled to be here. Yes, and for those of you that probably watched the previous episode, Kahli's actually been on our podcast before, so this time we're going to touch on their shared journey together. And so I thought it'd be a really good place for us to kind of start off like, how did you all even first get involved with the Career Services industry? Or what made you even think about working for the Career Center at UNC Charlotte? well, my start with the career services industry, of course, started at UNC Charlotte. I was looking for an internship and ironically, I needed resume help. So I went to the I think I did like a virtual drop in appointment at the Career Center and I met with AJ Simmons. He told me my resume was trash. We were tapping. No, he didn't say it like that. But he definitely helped me and gave me some feedback on why my resume was always getting kicked back. And then he just asked me if I wanted to apply for the peer professional internship, which would actually qualify for that. So I ended up doing that. And it was one of the best decisions I made, helping students with resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles, drop-ins. I'm sure Kahli will touch on the professional closet, too. The professional closet. But it was just such a great atmosphere there just helping students and I think in the process of that we just became so enamored with you know the gratification you get when students come back thanking you for all of your help And so after college there were still some people who knew that I did resumes so they were reaching out to me for help and Writing resumes was different from reviewing resumes. So I didn't really know what to charge what to think about And eventually people were coming back to me saying they got interviews from those resume writing services. So that's when I reached out to Kahli and Harris, and I'm sure we'll expand on that story later, but that was my intro to career development. Love it. For me it was funny. I had already had a job at the school. I worked for Niner Central. So know, when first call the school, I was one of the students that would answer and help. okay, when I started that job, I was there at that weird time of COVID. Then when we came back, So there were so many students who you know, the process of not having an advisor, not being in person. So I would joke to my friends, I'm really like an advisor, cause they would ask me, these are freshmen or people that needed help with trying to work through degree works and stuff. And I just gave the best of my ability cause of my experience. And my friend Lauren actually worked at the career center and she kept saying, my gosh, you need to just come to the career center. And I was like, I don't know, like, I don't know. Then I kind of got tired of my job because it was fully remote and I liked to be around people. So it was half of my classes, I literally had maybe one in-person class all remote and I was like, my gosh, I'm just always in my room. You know, I want to be around people. I feel like I, kind of like a hybrid. I got to thrive with people but having time to myself. So my friend finally was like, okay girl, like. her and my other best friend, they were about to graduate. She was like, okay, you need to go ahead and apply to the Career Center. So she actually reached out to AJ and left a recommendation. And then AJ interviewed me this summertime and was like, you should come work for the Career Center. And I actually had two roles at the Career Center, because I did front desk, so when people first come in, I would help the students. But I really enjoyed it. Like Madison said, we had a clothing closet, which was so fun. Cause some students will come in like, really don't know what I'm looking for. can you help me? I'm like, okay. All right. it was, it was so, so fun. it was a great experience. especially meeting Madison and Harris and other students that we got to help and just even just growing the career development, on a personal side too. So it was definitely we definitely enjoyed it. That's awesome. It sounds like you got to even play a little bit of like stylist there if you're helping people figure out their outfits for like their interviews. And then I know Madison kind of already touched on one of her stories of how hearing people come back and say, well, you really helped me so much. I was able to land interviews. Did you ever have those experiences where people would come back, Kahli and kind of give you a little bit of their testimony and say, hey, this is how you helped me and impacted my life. I actually have. So I remember I was doing a LinkedIn for one of the ladies and you can for the career center if you can't come you can join online. So I was helping a lady and looking at her she worked at Charlotte and she needed help but she was constantly giving you know she was very grateful she was just like thank you so much. this was so helpful, before this, I really didn't know, but I like how you broke it down because LinkedIn can be a lot, we all know that. So she was just like, that was very helpful. And like, so I've gotten like a few from LinkedIn and even some students that will come back to just be like, thank you so much for you know, helping me with my resume. So it just always made me feel really good that people were either you know, hearing back or got like a job or a scholarship or just building that confidence in people of like, my gosh, okay, you know, the resume, you know, wasn't giving, the template wasn't giving, but the work, the experience was there. Yeah, no, that definitely makes sense. And I think it's so important for people to come back and give you that feedback because I know for myself, that's what keeps me motivated and keeps me going because like I'm seeing, I'm actually having a real impact on these people lives. I'm not just doing this work for no reason. And even Madison too, it sounds like maybe you were the one that started thinking, hey, this can be an actual business. And then you decided to pull in your other business partners. So I know being entrepreneur myself, it's always so hard of like, should I do this solo? Or should I create a whole team around this? So kind of what was your thought process behind, hey, these are two incredible people. I think they could really kind of add to what I'm doing here. Well, Kahli knows and Harris knows that working in the Career Center was awesome. But the amount of work that we did, even just reviewing resumes, we always kind of joked around with the idea of starting like a separate business or like just charging a little bit more than what we were getting there. So I think once the first person I helped was a close like neighbor and she was trying to apply for jobs, I think like financial positions. I had really not much experience at resume writing, but I was just trying it out. And as soon as she told me she got the interview, she sent my information to a friend without even asking me. It was like, this is a resume writer, like she can help you out. And so then that person came to me and I was helping her with her resume and she was coming back with like good feedback, whether it was an interview and I think a couple of names down the line through that one person, someone ended up getting a job. And I was like, whoa, this is like, this is really exciting. But the business, as you said, that feedback is so important, you know, whether it's to you or to other people, because the business kind of started to build itself. Now I work full-time as a technical writer. I work remote and I travel once a month to Raleigh to be in person, but I say remote mostly because I'm here. So that in of itself is like a full-time job. So building a business on the side was going to take a lot of work and I knew that, but I was getting excited about helping people again and having that same fuel of passion for the careers development thing. And so I just thought about Kahli and Harris because we always joked around in the Career Center. We always, you know, talked about things, talked this in the past and I knew that they would be very serious if we if we decided to do it. So I'll let Kahli elaborate more on like them receiving the text, but I shot them a text. think what day do we figure that out? It's like December of last year. It was December of last year like literally Madison I'm just like laughing because it's like dang that time is kind of what we were talking We literally had a meeting talking about this like dang. It's been a year like a full circle but Madison literally sent us a text and said like hey Y'all remember when we kind of like was talking about the career center like dang what if we started our own business would y'all be down? Me and Harris immediately was like my gosh yes like it was such a I don't know like especially to reconnect with Madison and Harris because by then I think Madison had graduated a little bit before me and Harris so we were still at the career center and then the time that she reached out me and Harris had just graduated so like We were kind of all part in ways, but she said, we always had a good time. it was just nice to go in and see both of them. And we just knew we shared similar values and a lot of stuff. And especially how we wanted to see the students succeed. Cause you know, when you do a drop in, it's 15 minutes and a lot of times we'd be like, my gosh, this is not long enough because it's like, you have so much stuff you want to tell them, but you're trying to help them in minutes and then once the career center really started growing like we were having students come like crazy so we were like my gosh you know if you want more feedback like check back in with someone else or like come back so it was just nice to have that like full circle moment so we instantly were like my gosh yeah so we started texting our ideas then we started meeting on zoom because now i'm back at home but we still make time to have in person meetings, we were like, okay, we got right into it. And it was just like, Madison said, it was, was exciting. We all shared that passion and still it was still there. So that was really nice. I didn't even know that y'all were coming up on your one year anniversary, like huge congrats on that. That is so awesome. I'm sure y'all are probably like reflecting on things and just being like, wow, like we've come so far in a year, whether it was just even growth. so reflecting back, what are some main lessons that y'all learned? from this year or takeaways that you have, maybe even advice you would give to someone if they're thinking about starting their own business, specifically within the career space Definitely. There's a lot. think one thing that me, Kahli and Harris do often is we sit back and reflect. Whether it's in our working meetings or just in our weekly goals meetings, because we have typically two to three meetings a week. And a lot of times with new clients, we'll just learn something with each thing. whether it's template preparation for resumes, I think that's very important. A lot of our focus in the beginning was getting clients through the applicant tracking system and the computer that kind of push back resumes at times, whether that's because of formatting or lack of keywords or things like that. But we also have had clients come to us like, hey, I understand that this isn't popular, but I want my resume to look like this because I'm gonna be handing it out on paper form. And so we've had, I think, almost like a new lesson with each client. Like we've had creative clients, which I'll let Kahli elaborate on And just like different people, like be well studied in the field. When it comes to business preparation, I think it's always just super important to have connections with other business owners. They don't have to be the same field. A lot of what helped me in the beginning and us when it came to the financials and the planning and the organization of everything was just communicating with other business owners. I had connections with people in catering because I worked for a catering company before my full-time job. We all three connected with Keith who did our photos for our website and so we would ask him questions but that's just important I think it's all important to be prepared. Yeah, one thing that I feel like that's coming to my head is having that community. And it's so important to have a community personally, but also how Madison said we're connecting with people she knew and people that were willing to give no advice. Because I feel like, I don't know, won't say, some people will gatekeep it, be I can't. But finding people who really will give you that advice. And I think that's a big thing of you know, it never hurts to ask questions, ask for help, reach out, because I feel like sometimes when you're starting your own business, it's like, you don't, you kind of feel like you don't want to or you know, I'm supposed to start my own business, me asking, you know, people for help, but it's nothing's wrong with that. and you'll find so many people who are willing to just give you that advice, that feedback. And that was really nice. And like Madison said, we do reflect a lot I know a lot of times after we meet with a client or we have our in person like I feel like every time we talk about it's just like dang we're just touching on like you know this was a learning zone of whether it's new stuff to do for the business or for our social media or just like I don't know I feel like we always really be reflecting so like Madison said we've had so many different clients so we have two creatives and one was my friend and her main focus is music you know internships so that was kind of really new to us and she wanted me to do it but I was like mmm okay I that's when I automatically reached out to Madison and Harrison I was like hey y'all my friend needs help with his resume and I know I just like we all work best as like a team because it's like we all have our different perspectives of okay, what we're seeing, what we can add, different words or different things. And it's just like, I don't know, it just really be like, we're the dream team for real, like. Yes, task management is just super important. And I think as far as like one of the biggest lessons, it's always like client satisfaction. Like receiving feedback from clients as well has been so helpful. Like we've heard we've had clients like, hey, you should you should try this next time. Like maybe you should ask this kind of question up front, you know, especially when you're dealing with clients that are friends of friends or like family. So just being receptive to advice like Kahli said. Yeah, y'all touched on so many important things. I'm like trying to summarize them and remember what y'all said. But first, I know you touched on like reflection and making sure you're reflecting back. I feel like that's so important to do not only as a business owner, but like you said in your personal life too, because if you just go throughout life and never take a moment to step back and think about lessons learned, think about things that you've accomplished and you're gonna miss out on so many opportunities for growth. So I... Yes, definitely agree with that. I know you just talked about customer service and that's such a biggie for me. my goodness. Like even as again, the business owner, but also when I'm receiving the service, if someone doesn't have good customer service, that's such a huge turnoff to me or even providing their customers an option to receive that feedback or give that feedback. Because like you said, as a business owner, it's really going to be in your best benefit to hear from them and make sure that you're improving things along the way. I know both of you all touched on you have a nine to five and obviously it's always the trendy thing to say like here's my nine to five and then my five to nine but like what does that what does that kind of lifestyle actually look like for you all in reality in terms of having to juggle that full-time job while you're building a business on the side. I was gonna say, I feel like first thing that to my head was like, it's not easy. I don't have this aesthetically pleasing, it's like, my gosh, no. You have some days where you're like, because I know for my job, I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, but I tutor two kids on the side on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So really, I feel like I have a calendar. in my room. have a calendar in my phone. I have my work calendar connected to my phone. It's a lot because you still have to make in time for personal, whatever that is. And essentially, I think the last one I definitely touch on self-care, still having to fit in time for that. And it can be a lot. I definitely be having days where I'm going through it. I'll be like, leaning in a nap and I'm like, my gosh, wait. And I love that Madison and Harris do be understanding. So I'll be like, my gosh, y'all. we can all really just have a conversation outside of like life is life-y. you know, we might need to sit down to be like, okay, what is our schedule? looking at you know, to whether meet up with a new client or on one of our work meetings or when we do in-person and you know, like. We all have, of course, jobs, lives, stuff going on. So we have to come together with all our busy schedules to be like, this day and this time, and this day and this time. It's a lot. It's not easy. But I do feel like what keeps me going, especially hearing the feedback from clients, so when people get jobs, or seeing them write, give us a review, and just seeing that is just so nice. I feel like even when we get in person and have our in-person meetings, that really keeps me going of getting to see Madison and Harris and get food and be joking and then get to just reconnect. You have days where it is tiring. I'm not even going to lie, but you have something to look forward to and you know that it's something that you like and you be pushing through, really. Yes. I would say for me, it's like, it's gonna always be different from Kahli's experience. I say that because I work from home. And so like she said, we try to be very understanding of each other's work schedules in our lives because we work different full-time jobs and we have different responsibilities day to day. And so for me working from home, it's kind of nice because I can finish working from home and continue working from home for the resume business. Like Kahli said, we meet probably about once or twice a month in person to fully like lock in on those monthly goals and see how we're doing with the things that we've set apart. But task management and time management is just the main thing. Just making sure that we're at least meeting a certain amount of times per week. If something does come up, we just reschedule it. And so it's just being flexible with all of that and with each other. Keeping the business first and keeping our clients at the forefront. like there's as Kahli knows, there's like a huge task board of things that we would love to accomplish, you know, in the next like three to five weeks. And so we do like P1, P2 and P3. It's actually something I kind of stole from my job. as far as like task management. They have like a certain task management system, they call them governance worksheets. And so I created one for our business with, I think we have like a financial section, we have like administrative tasks, we have our clients, and then we have marketing, website development, all these different things. And on there's one day of the week where we go through and like, hey, what do we want to accomplish just this week? You know, I see all these things we want to accomplish in the next month. But what are we just going to focus on this week? And if it becomes like a heavy work week for any of us and it just becomes too much, we do prioritize self-care. also we do prioritize our clients, you know, when it comes to those things. we have an active resume or active cover letter or something that we need to pinch, you know, we have to think about their timeline as well. You know, with this kind of service, it's not just ordering like a hat. offline. It's like they need this. They need this resume in by a certain time before the job posting gets taken down. You want to be urgent. You want to be one of the first applicants, you know, whether they're handing this resume or cover letter to somebody specifically in the next like three days. Like we have to be flexible with our clients too. So it can be pressing at times to finally answer the question. But I think because of our passion and our care for our clients and for each other and our schedules, like we always find a way to work it out. Yeah, no, I love that. And honestly, y'all didn't mention this word, but I'm hearing basically the theme of it is boundaries. You have boundaries for yourself when it comes to self care, your time. And you also have boundaries when it comes to like even your clients, like you know that of course they have to get the work in and things like that, but you're just making sure you're very particular about how you get things done. You sound like you have incredible processes to help things be very organized and streamlined. And I might need to... connect with you offline to kind of get a peep at that management system because I'm all about like systems and processes. Low key, I would love to be a project manager. So anytime like you're talking about things like that, I use Notion. I don't know if y'all use that platform. But you were speaking to my heart when you were like theming all that and I kind of was getting a visual in my head. I'm like, wait, that sounds really nice. Yeah props to Madison for real like cuz I don't know her Harris know like I do like a lot of the social media like marketing and stuff but systems and programs Her Harris is really got that. Because I'd be like, I'm like, OK, y'all, my brain is trying to like, but her really making that has also really helped me too. I used to tell them, I think there has been some times before this, I would just get so overwhelmed. Kind of looking at if we had someone whose resume was kind of like, we're trying to format it and rewrite it, I would get so overwhelmed. And it was nice because then we started our own processes of like, okay, let's break this down. Let's split this up. I feel like now, you know, we're trying to like, meet up for the new years. So we're definitely you know, about to sit and reflect and be like, okay, like, you know, it's always room for improvement. and I like that we always keep that in mind to be like, okay, like, you know, it's always room for improvement and always room to grow, period. That's also our little theme to grow. also just giving yourself grace. That's something that we've had to learn in this process, me especially. Kahli knows, like me especially. When things happen, there is gonna be conflict. There's gonna be times when a client has more questions about something that has been working for us in the past, or the time management doesn't line up the way we want it to be, or we are overwhelmed. because of things happening in our personal lives or our full-time job, work life. think Harris especially, and I wish he was here, but Harris especially, he's one of those people like, hey, guys, we really learned from this. At least we know now. I think those are a lot of conversations that we need to have. that's part of being a part of them. love Harris so much. Love you Harris, we gonna make you listen to this. he is so, I mean, he used to do that to us at the Career Center, really pouring into us. We would have times, even at the Career Center, mean, we would be like, my gosh, this is such a long day, we still have all this. He was always coming with, whether it's just advice or just like. He is so like, it's just nice to still have somebody like that where we're beating ourselves up and then he's coming to balance us. Like, okay y'all, it's okay, we still did this. Now we got our time to reflect, but we really did that. That's just like, that's really nice. Yeah, no, it's great. It sounds like you all have such a great team dynamic and y'all really killed it on the reason why you need to have a team. Because I remember I was listening to so many podcasts at the beginning of this year and one of the things they were talking about is a lot of people start a business and they're like, they just hire their best friend or they just hired this person. But at the end of the day, there's not really any skills or anything they're bringing to the team. But yes, you all were friends first, but it sounds like you all have different strengths and y'all are all bringing something different to the team, which is like you said, now creating this huge like power team or power dynamics. So do you have any tips for how someone can kind of form a team and look out for different strengths or weaknesses and say, hey, I need someone to fill this role and this role and this role. Like just like you would like interview to be like, okay. What do we what are you bringing? Like I feel like okay Besides someone having like, you know, similar values, similar interests of like, okay, we, know we like this, like we all have this in common, but what, what all can we you know, take on what, what are we bringing? I feel like it's not a bad thing to ask. Cause I don't know. I'm not going to say all people who work with friends, like it don't end up, but sometimes it's like, you know, am I bringing this person because they're adding on value and like, you know, they can, we can help each other or is it just because of you know, have no relations. So I think that's a big thing. Like just how you would for an interview, you know, what are you bringing to the table? Like actually sitting down, but also being receptive to feedback, even giving the other person feedback that's already in your team or anything that's a big thing. Cause if you do work in what a team or you're trying to get one together and You one person is not really receptive to feedback or you're feeling like maybe you're kind of doing more of taking on the load than, you know, having someone balance it out. Balance too. you know, you really have to look at like, you know, your main thing in mind is you know, your business and then growing. So it's just like, you have to look at, okay, is this really best for the business? Is this also best for me too? Just gotta be honest. Yes. I know for me in the beginning, it was prayer. Like, I feel like when I first started and I was like, I have no idea what to do because there were clients coming in and I was like, do I, it was that question. Like, do I do this by myself or do I bring people on? Like there's pros and cons to all of it. And so I knew Kahli and Harris in the beginning. I was like, I know their personalities would match perfect. Like the team effort, like working together is, it's all about being observant of people's strengths. So I knew Kahli's like when it came to connecting with people when it came to creativity and ideas for marketing and just you know the resume work was a given like the background was all the same for us so I think just paying attention to that I was like I would love to have Kahli on this team and with Harris I think he's like very meticulous like when it comes to things like he likes things done the way that they're done. When he starts something, he finishes it like you can just count on him to have your back. And so I just I knew both of their their strengths from that side. And when I thought about how we work together at the Career Center, to be fair, we only had like certain interactions and shifts where we all work together all the time. And a lot of times we were working on resumes and cover letters. It was individual So this was really an opportunity to see how it goes. Like I think a trial run when it comes to a team is fair, not always promising off the bat. I could promise on the back because I trusted them. I was like, know that, you know, we're gonna do this thing together. But what I've heard, especially when it comes to like podcasts and different kinds of businesses, is just like, a lot of times a person has this business idea and they come to you they're like, hey, let's see how this goes. Like, I'm not, I'm not saying you're in, I'm not saying we're doing this yet like let's give it a trial run and you know I've had friends who have had like not even like full follow-ups just like very very comfortable conversations and mature conversations about like hey this I don't think this will work with our personalities or our strengths I think they collide in this way but we can still move forward Yeah, now you're right. Because honestly, a lot of jobs even do that, like a probation period of like, hey, let's test this out, make sure this works for both of us before we like fully commit. I mean, it's the same thing even with relationships. I mean, I know there's some people out there, but most people aren't going to go, hey, on the first date, let's go get married tonight. Like, you know, you got to date the person first. So business relationship, we almost have to treat it the same way. And nothing is wrong with that at all. If y'all are okay with it, I would love to kind of switch gears and talk to the perspective of I know there so many women out there, or just people period that are struggling to find jobs with this crazy job market that we're in. Do you all have any advice for them or even just words of encouragement to get them through this challenging season that they may be going through? As far as words of encouragement, I would just say to keep going. And that sounds so cliche, but continue to do the things that you're doing. For me, when it came to that gap between getting my job after graduation, and just finishing my degree, just kind of assuming I'd be in a role. I don't know, I think there's a piece of a lack of rhetoric around how difficult it is to actually get a job. So in that period, there was a lot of prayer, there was a lot of time with just me and God, being intentional about the kind of things that I wanted, I needed to figure out. If I wanted to work from home, if I wanted to be in the office, understanding your values, are you willing to relocate? Having an idea of how you want things to go in that way. Being around a community that's going to uplift you is important. Like I had friends and family, you know, constantly reminding me to to keep putting in applications because there were periods where I was like, well, I'm not getting any calls back. I'm done. I'm not. I'm going to take a break. You know, I've heard a lot of people say I'm taking a break from putting in applications, but continuing to do that. had like a life coach at the time and she was just like, you need to be applying the jobs like applying the jobs is your full time job. And so I was doing that along with networking. what ultimately got me my job was networking. was on LinkedIn and I was reaching out to people, alumni from my school who were doing what I wanted to do. And I copy and pasted that thing and I sent it out to about 30 people and one woman responded and she got me the role that I was in today because they opened that role for me. It wasn't an application that I put in. So not limiting yourself in the ways that you can get a job, being open to advice and just making sure you're getting you a little money on the side while you're looking for one and being encouraged around your community. that's so real. Like, I definitely felt that. And every time Madison always tells this story, I literally be telling people like, y'all, my friend got a job, like from LinkedIn, like, and it's funny because I literally just seen where someone was like, applied to that job. Like, even if you feel like you're not like qualified apply, like she already know I'm say the same thing like apply network, definitely prayer. Like I know for when I was applying to jobs and I was going to job interviews, I was like, my gosh, like, okay, this is. For me, it's going to be for me. it's not, like, and I mean, I feel like I'm kind of in between already of like, you know, sprouting out. So it's just, I definitely feel like definitely that keep going. And like, I was getting tired of applying jobs. I definitely was. And I had people telling me the same thing. Like sometimes I would literally put in, like, I would give myself a goal for that day and I'd be like, okay, I need to take a break after this. And because then I would I would hyper focus so much on like applying and be like, my gosh, if I don't get this job, I don't get this job and like, you know, even hearing back and not getting it. And I had to be like, I had to really sit with that to be like, you know, when I really did say like, OK, this is for me, this is going to be for me. and sometimes you know, not hearing back from those jobs, like I started to get myself grace because I was like, you know, like Madison said, you know, have your little job of getting money. like, you know, like realize that's not your end goal. Like, you know. You know what you want your end goal to be. You know, keep applying to those jobs. I mean, it be hard, but definitely give yourself grace. cause it is not, it's not easy. times are, you know, a little different. You kind of can't leave a job right now and then have a job by tomorrow. Like some, some of the places is getting a little hard. So like big on that giving grace because some people don't understand. Cause some people that you might be talking to might have been in their same role. and don't really know how hard it really is getting. definitely give yourself grace, having that community around you, just really praying on that for real. Yes. Yeah, I agree with everything y'all said. I definitely been on and off the job market myself for some time now. And like you said, it is rough now. And unfortunately, like you said, it's so common for people to graduate college and still not have a job. And I think I agree with you Madison, it's definitely not talked about enough. And that's why I'm working on a little passion project of mine that I'll hopefully we'll talk about soon later on in 2025. But yeah, I agree with everything definitely with the praying part because I am a huge believer in letting God lead the way and kind of like you said, Kahli, what's for you is what it's going to be for you. And if the closed door happens or if you don't get that opportunity, you may not be able to see it now, but that just means that wasn't the right opportunity for you. And girl, I know it's so hard to think that way in the moment. And then definitely with the community piece of like, yes, surround yourself with people that are going to be supportive. And I also think that I'll add to that is like, try to find people in a similar situation as you. Because I know for me at first it was so hard because most of my friends were in grad school and things like that and I felt like no one could really relate to what I was going through. But when I found people in similar situations like, okay, I'm not crazy for filling these emotions and like I'm not the only one out here struggling like it's not something wrong with me. So that's kind of always helpful to feel kind of that way. So I have a question. Last question for y'all is kind of like what's next for KHM career services. Like where do y'all hope to be kind of in the near future? I know you just wrapped up your first year, so no pressure, but just curious of what y'all are kind of envisioning for the future. KMH Career Services. We have some goals for 2025 for sure. I think a lot of them have to do with client increase and just marketing. Just reaching different areas that we didn't get to this year. Like I said in the beginning, our business was a lot, in the beginning was built a lot off of word of mouth. and just like clients recommending other clients. And so we're looking to reach different platforms. I know we know TikTok is getting shut down in January. We will see. But just kind of expanding our marketing and our bandwidth when it comes to who we're reaching and just perfecting our processes. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. you know, we have a little piece that we kind of want to work on of like, you know, giving back to the community so that we definitely have you know, been looking into. we've talked about you know, having events to help people in the community, with, like resume, like career advice. We've been thinking on the level of college students who didn't have the opportunity and space that we had. So, you know, it's a lot coming up. Everybody stay tuned. We see that in the regard, you know, we're definitely all strong believers when it comes to like our faith in God and what we're believing him for so like our first answer of course is his will it's like whatever he has for 2025 we want that for it but when we thought about these pro bono events and the opportunity to give you know free resume help and free resume advice and career development advice like We definitely see it as our version of tithing as a business and we're excited about the opportunity to be able to help others continue whether it's the corporate down to blue collar, anything. We're just looking to help everybody, so excited for it. I love that because I'm doing the same thing for my business. I've kind of had a way of giving back where I would give a percentage of our proceeds to nonprofits, but I kind of want to have a more tangible impact. I don't know if that makes sense. So I've been reflecting on that myself of what would that look like for my business structure. And so I love the idea of you all hosting those pro bono events and really reaching and connecting people that may not, like you said, have access to those type of services that you all are offering. I'm so excited for that. y'all do, not if, when y'all do end up offering those events, definitely let me know so can help spread the word about the things that y'all are doing. So before we wrap up, I know we've been talking so much about your services and things that y'all offer. So how can people connect with you all? And even if they're interested in potentially receiving your services, what's a good way for them to reach out and connect? The best way to reach us would probably be through our website. So if you go to our website, khmcareerservices.com, you can go to the contact us bar and you can fill out a form for us to immediately connect with you and set up a Google Meet or like a consultation. You can also follow us on Instagram at khmcareerservices. Go ahead and shout out to socials. Yes, follow us on Instagram, you know, we have a Facebook too So follow us on the socials, but definitely reaching out to us like, know through our website You know have some questions and help with your resume LinkedIn I'll definitely put all of that in the show notes so people can like see it and just have a link to access your website and your social media platforms because I definitely want them to reach out to y'all because I already know y'all services are bomb top tier. So again, I really appreciate you all so much for joining. It was truly a pleasure having you. And if you're listening and you had a Sis me too moment during today's episode, Make sure to hit follow and share it with a friend who could use a little bit of girl talk in her life. Thank you again and bye sis!
