How Nathan Leaned Into Authenticity to Land His Dream Job

Podcast Transcript:

Nathan: I take the words right out of my coach’s mouth, “Be it till you become it.” Because guess what? If you cannot be it, how are you going to become it?

Coreea: I’m so proud of you for just being yourself. I mean, nobody can do that for you. Nobody can believe in you for you, but you.

Welcome to another episode of Promoted, a podcast about leaving low wage work for good. Today, I’m your host, Coreea Allen, a Merit America coach. And today we have one of my favorite people, Nathan. I’m so excited to see you, Nathan. 

Nathan: Hello.

Coreea: I’m so excited to see you Nathan. We’re gonna be talking about one of, I think, our favorite topics. We talked about a lot which is authenticity. I think we talked about that a lot and how it’s the key to your dream career. You’re living the dream right now.

Nathan: Yes, I am.

Coreea: And I can’t wait to dig into it and talk to you about it, like, in real time. So, first things first, talk to me about life before Merit. What made you decide, “I’m going to fill out this application, and I’m going to take these next steps.”

Nathan: Well, life before Merit, oh my goodness. I was a lead at my local airport, making minimum wage, you know, $17.50 an hour. And now I am a HR and staffing coordinator for one of the biggest medical fields here in the area.

It was a struggle. I didn’t like what I was doing. People were always telling me, “You need to get into HR. You need to get into HR. You are such a people person.”

I quit my job and I just was scrolling on Instagram and Merit America just kept popping up. And I applied and just in all good faith, it was just a win.

Coreea: Yes. So when you’re like, “Okay, it keeps popping up, so maybe it’s a sign, right?” You apply, what were your hopes? What were you hoping to gain or happen to happen?

Nathan: To gain knowledge. Because as you know, in our one-on-ones, I have the experience. I’ve been in HRA for Amazon. I’ve done the footwork already, but in this workforce, you need more than just the experience. They want you to have the education now. So that is what brought me to Merit America.

Coreea: You already had the experience. You wanted more expertise in the field so that you could have everything you needed. What was your ‘why’? We talked about that a lot during our time in the program about knowing what your ‘why’ is. Talk to me about your ‘why’. Like, no matter how hard it got, that’s the one thing you look back at.

Nathan: My ‘why’ is personal. It’s not even to go into someone’s workplace like I did. My ‘why’ is to help out my sister with her nonprofit. So determined, like I said, she did not know. She just found out when you posted that I got the position. So that is my ‘why’. That’s what kept me going.

Coreea: So when you told me about your experience and I asked you what is one area you feel like you need to strengthen? What was that area for you?

Nathan: Being able to delegate because I like to do everything myself. But like I was telling you, I don’t want to give it up because I know if I do it, it’s going to come out right. I just want it done right. So, in this position being the only one, I’ve used it authentically. I’ve really been using it.

Coreea: Authentically. That was another word we talked about a lot. You wanted to make sure the role that you went into was you were able to be yourself. You didn’t want to wear a mask, you didn’t want to feel like you can’t be who Nathan is. Talk to me a little bit about that, because that was a conversation we had a lot, and the topic for today. 

Nathan: Our last one-on-one, I was telling you, I was getting zero hits, zero hits. But it was because a lot of people were telling me, “Don’t be yourself. You need to play a certain role.” Then, you just reminded me, “No, be yourself because that’s you.” Be it till you become it. So I did it. I was myself.

I basically told them my background. I was me. I wasn’t that black and white picture, you know, I went into that interview and she was like, “We want you. I got five other interviews today. I’m stopping at you.” And I was just being authentic. I’m being myself. I’m not hiding. I’m not gonna puff my chest up. I’m gonna sit back and be me. And that’s what got it, you know?

Coreea: I just wanna take a deep breath and pause there for a second because that’s so big. You were so worried about that. Like, “I’m not gonna be able to just be myself. I feel like I’m gonna have to be someone else.” The very time you stepped into it, it worked for you. did. So would you tell the person who’s coming in behind you with this program that’s similar to you, saying “I’m not gonna be able to wear my hair a certain way or just talk how I talk.” What would you tell them? Because there’s a lot of people who feel that way.

Nathan: One, I’m going to say, I take the words right out of my coach’s mouth, “Be it till you become it.” Because guess what? If you cannot be it, how are you going to become it? That has given me the most confidence in certain aspects of the role. Being in a role and handling it yourself. I’ve been an assistant, but have I run my whole office by myself before? No, I haven’t.

So I walk into work every day like I have because I am. People come to me asking me questions because they think I’ve been doing this forever. No, I’ve been an assistant for a while, not the boss, you know? So my piece of advice for someone is to step into the role. Believe it until you become it.

Another thing you said was know your worth. They put it on the table—“We can offer you $22.” I said, “I know my worth. I know my history. I want $25.”

No hesitation. They said, “I want you. I can make that happen.” Being in Merit, my coaches taught me a lot. I already knew my high and my low [salary range]. So I knew what to accept already. I’m not coming to play with you. I know  because I had a great coach. 

Coreea: We’re not gonna cry.

Nathan: We’re not because we almost did a couple of times.

Coreea: I’m so proud of you for just being yourself. I mean, nobody can do that for you. Nobody can believe in you like you. And once you do that, that’s the key, right? Like, once you did that, that’s when you stepped into your journey, your new career, your going back into HR where you’re supposed to be. When you said, “I’m gonna be Nathan and I’m gonna make it work,” and you negotiated. Very proud. If you hadn’t asked, you would have never received it.

You talked a lot about your own experience in HR and how it motivated you to want to go into HR. Take us back to that, like, before your very first job, what made you say, “Human resources is the role for me?”

Nathan: I love people. I love engaging with people. My life growing up, I wanted a career where I was helping someone. Being young, I wanted to be a police officer because of the public service. I went from that to being a pastor to just being a regular manager in retail to build an operation and make it right.

And people just kept telling me, “Nathan, I want to work for you. I want to be on your shift.” I had a waiting list for people to be on my shift. And then people were like, “We need to move you into HR.” And I’m like, “Really is HR where I want to go? Is that what I want to do?” Because how I want to take care of people, that’s not really how we see it in the HR world. But like you said, I have the experience. I put myself in there, and even as an HRA, as a human resources assistant, I did change it because I made it for the employees while still protecting the business.

Coreea: That’s major. And you’re gonna change a lot of people’s lives. You got the “yes.” When you give them the “yes,” you’re gonna change their life. are. And the fact that you’re giving them the best, not the bottom [salary range] and see if they’ll ask. Because as you know, that was one of the things a lot of people struggle with was negotiation.

Nathan: Yes.

Coreea: We talked a lot about that. But you were brave enough to negotiate and not be afraid.

Nathan: And I didn’t hesitate. 

Coreea: And that takes confidence.

Nathan: But it all leads to say like, you learn from your coach.

Coreea: So at the beginning of Merit, like the “First Day in Squad Nathan” and “You Got the Job Nathan,” what is one thing you would tell yourself you’re proud of?

Nathan: I would tell myself I’m proud of being me. I think putting myself out there just gave me the better opportunity. I was able to walk into an interview after having to go over my resume with you and be like, “This is not a lie. It’s what I’ve done. So why do I need to scale back?”

Coreea: We’re pushing forward. We’re putting it out there. Like, this is what you’re getting. You leave it, you take it, like, hey. So walk me through like a day in a life, now that you’ve landed the job.

Nathan: I am the only human resource slash staffing coordinator. So with all the nurses, my day to day is basically making sure that first we stay compliant with California. Second, making sure I have all my nurses, all my in-home care, all my MAs, all of that staff for the following week. So we do it week by week, making sure everyone’s there. We even pull in travel nurses. We do everything like that. I take care of time cards, submitting payroll, and interviewing new candidates—just getting the workforce together.

Coreea: You are the person in charge.

Nathan: Yes.

Coreea: That is amazing. So how much of what you learned in the Merit America program prepared you for your role?

Nathan:  I believe 80 % really prepared me for the role. Like I said, I had the experience, knowing how to go get that knowledge. If I didn’t have you picking on us in class and showing how to do this or that and our squad breakouts where we did comparisons. For example, knowing how much to pay someone and going through different sites.

Knowing that, for my travel nurse, this is what they should be offered. And guess what? I’m gonna offer you the best of what I can. My COO is telling me the budget. I’m gonna give you the best because I’ve learned in our class that if you give them the best, the best is gonna stay.

Coreea: That’s right. Again, Nathan, I’m super proud of you. If there was one thing you could say to a learner that was coming in on their first day of squad right now, what would you say to them?

Nathan: Take notes. Take notes. And my squad mates would say, “Are we gonna have squad today because coach is awesome.” We were the first HR class. You came in from—what was it? IT? 

Coreea: IT.

Nathan: IT to HR. Take notes because you don’t even know yourself until you start taking notes. Start learning. Be willing and open to learn. Speak up and don’t hide. Do not hide. Because we see the list when we’re in our Zoom. There’s people who hid behind the camera and didn’t speak. No, you won’t learn. I’m more hands-on. I have to do it. So like you said, make flashcards. Do all these things. It works.

Coreea: I’m really proud to hear it’s working. And again, I don’t know how many times I can say it. I am proud of you.

Nathan: Thank you so much.

Coreea: I was super excited today. I was nervous. But I was excited more than anything to see you. If I could hug you through the screen, I would hug you through the screen because I missed you. I missed your engagement in squad. I missed you as a person in those one-on-ones. But I was proud of you because you were exactly where you wanted to be. You reached your goal and you’re gonna reach more goals. It’s only gonna get better from here. So just know I saw you and I still see you. And I’m proud of you.

Nathan: You picked me out of the crowd, I’m thankful.

Coreea: Come on, Nathan. And you encouraged a lot of people. You encouraged people that were quiet to speak. I don’t know if you realize it, but your impact and squad was missed when you weren’t there. People did talk about you not being there. And you encouraged people that you didn’t know you did just by being who you were.

Nathan: Thank you. That means a lot. That means a lot, especially in our field, especially as a human resource professional, knowing that you can touch somebody and change them. That means a whole lot.

Coreea: Yeah, I want to congratulate you on your new role, and I want to tell you to grow forward and be the very best Nathan that you can be because people are watching you.

Nathan: Thank you, coach.

Coreea: All right, to all our listeners, if Nathan’s story resonated with you and you’re interested in exploring how Merit America can guide you towards a rewarding career, visit our website at www.meritamerica.com. With that, we conclude this episode of Promoted. Until next time.