Stop Applying. Start Talking.

You know somebody who did it. Maybe it was you. Two hundred applications, a fresh cover letter tweaked for every one, a spreadsheet to keep track of it all, and then nothing. Not even a no. Just a quiet inbox and a little less confidence every week.

We were all taught to do it this way. Find the posting, upload the resume, hit submit, wait. Do it again tomorrow. Somebody decided that was the process, so everybody followed it, and now the pile on the other end just keeps growing.

So what if I told you it’s the wrong move? It doesn’t work, and it isn’t getting better anytime soon, if ever. You’ve seen the stats. I’m not going to stack more on top of them.

Here’s what I’d rather do. Same hours. Same effort. Same late-night coffee and the same grind you’re already putting in. Just pointed at actual people instead of a portal. Conversations first. Then interviews. Then opportunities, and then jobs, in that order, because that’s the order it really happens.

I sit on the hiring side of the table every day. I run my searches myself, make the calls myself, and have the awkward conversations myself. And what I see over and over is that the person who gets hired is rarely the one who submitted first. It’s the one somebody already knew about, or heard about, or got a short, human note from that made them think, huh, I should talk to this person.

I’m not selling anything. There’s no bait and switch waiting at the bottom of this post. And I’m not an AI bot, which I know is a funny thing to have to say these days. I’m a real guy from Chicago who lives in Nashville now, typing this because I’m happy to help. That’s it.

Because a database remembers names, but a person picks up the phone.

If you made it all the way down here, you’re probably the kind of person who’s ready to put in the work. So let’s talk. Send me an email at spinman@thecollective.ventures, tell me where you’re stuck and what you’re going after, and we’ll go from there. Fair warning, I’m looking for the folks who are serious about doing their part.

Spinny