Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Simone Jackson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Simone, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar your firm earns is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.

When you realize that your natural gifts go beyond just your family and friends, it can feel amazing and full of imposter syndrome all at the same time. I was in grad school and had written a blog post about the three resumes every college grad should have. The blog post didn’t go viral, but many of my family and friends shared how helpful it was. Next thing you know people were asking me if I could work on their resumes. I didn’t know what to charge, so I did it for free because I was happy to help. Then someone I didn’t know DM’ed me from a personal referral. I was shocked. Why would she trust me to do this? Why would a seasoned professional want me to work on their resume? I put a process together on how we would work together, set up a payment system, and worked on her resume. She loved it and referred me to more people. My business took off from there and I’ve been learning as I go ever since.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hey, y’all! I’m Simone, your favorite career coach, excited to help you land your dream job! My ultimate goal is to share the secrets that career coaches, recruiters, and major companies try to keep from job seekers. I want to make job searching easier for my community, especially recent college grads and young professionals. I really believe that EVERYONE should have someone they can go to for sound career advice and I hope to be that person for my audience.

What started as a lifestyle blog I called The Fab Grad in 2017 about navigating my life after college, quickly turned into a career coaching business. Quite honestly, I started having a hard time finding the balance between sharing my life online as an influencer and running a successful career services business. I paused it all in 2022 to really focus on myself and elevate my business and coaching skills. Now going into 2024, I’m excited to relaunch my brand as The Fab Grad Company, where we help young professionals and recent college grads find and secure a job they love!

I’m so proud of the clients I’ve already worked with who have landed their dream jobs, made more money in their careers, and found success in their job search through my services. Now I’ll be offering even more great ways to work with me including one-on-one career coaching and coming soon, career courses you can take at your own pace!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

By providing extreme value to my audience and not being afraid to openly share my strategies online on how to get a job. Everything about how to get a job can be found on Google, so I always found it pointless to keep my knowledge to myself. However, what’s not very common on the internet are young Black women who look like me sharing relatable job search strategies and career advice. There’s also a lot of confusing/conflicting information online about “the rules” of job searching. I was able to build a solid reputation in my niche because I kept it real by being myself, I kept it simple with my advice, and the advice I shared WORKED.

Specifically, when I would show up on IG live every Wednesday giving away free career advice consistently that is when I grew my audience and built my reputation as a career coach the most.

The secret to building your reputation in your industry? Show up consistently, on video, with confidence, and don’t be afraid to share everything you know about your industry. Prove that you’re actually an expert in what you do. TRUST me, the money will follow.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I quite literally had everything I’ve ever prayed for in January 2022; a thriving career coaching business and influencer career, a great job at my dream university, the cutest LA studio apartment, amazing family and friends, and a fairytale proposal and engagement party to kick off the year. It was everything I dreamed of “before I turned 30” but God had different plans for me.

By summer, I had called off my wedding, had to move back in with my parents, changed my job, and stepped away from my career influencer platform. It was one of the biggest pivots of my life but also one of my biggest blessings. Throughout that process, I learned resilience, healing, faith, hard work, rest, vulnerability, and most importantly how to get back up! I slowed down for once in my life and took the time to re-learn who Simone was.

That pivot led me to land my dream job as a career coach for graduate students and has given me a level of self-confidence I didn’t know I had. My advice to anyone going through a pivot in their life where you’re literally asking yourself, “Why is this happening to me?”, is to sit in the discomfort. It’s hard, but God’s timing is perfect. Give yourself a chance to marinate on the experience and allow yourself to grow from it!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thefabgrad.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/thefabgradco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPTl6QZLqany8kmsyRJV8wA

Image Credits
Xiaopan Xue Photography