Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
About This Episode
Vicky Oliver, bestselling author of 301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions and Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers & Other Office Idiots, joins us to expose one of the most overlooked threats to career success: self-sabotage in the workplace. Drawing on decades of experience coaching professionals and hiring talent, Vicky unpacks the subtle ways imposter syndrome, fragility, tech anxiety, and pride keep us stuck.
In this candid and empowering episode, she explores the difference between bosses, mentors, and allies—and why surrounding yourself with the right people matters more than ever in today’s evolving work environment. Whether you’re struggling to step up or already leading others, this is a must-listen for anyone navigating the complex reality of work in 2025 and beyond.
About Vicky Oliver
Vicky Oliver is a leading career development expert and the multi-bestselling author of five books, including Live Like a Millionaire (Without Having to Be One) (Skyhorse, 2015), and 301 Smart Answers to Tough Business Etiquette Questions (Skyhorse, 2010).
She is a sought-after speaker and seminar presenter and a popular media source, having made over 900 appearances in broadcast, print, and online outlets. She is the Nonfiction Editor at LIT Magazine, the Journal of the New School Masters in Fine Arts Creative Writing, and teaches essay writing at the New York Writers Workshop. For more information, visit vickyoliver.com.
What You’ll Learn
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- The 7 most common self-sabotaging habits professionals fall into.
- How imposter syndrome disguises itself—and how to beat it.
- The line between healthy pride and career-stalling impatience.
- How to thrive without a mentor (and where to find your real support network).
- Practical strategies to handle tech anxiety and keep learning in a fast-evolving landscape.
- Communication traps that can derail your professional image.
Transcript
Vicky Oliver [00:00:00] Right now in the workplace, there are four generations of workers still there in the workplace, right? Some say five, I say four. And so there are going to be some people in the workplace who quote unquote, what they used to call paying their dues, they paid their dues. Maybe they worked for three years in a particular job before they were promoted, right? And it was like a long, hard climb up. And those people now are maybe retiring or they are the decision-makers actually in that company. And they don’t really love it when somebody walks in and says, well, I’ve been here six months, how come you can’t promote me?
Daniel Lamadrid [00:00:38] Vicky, thank you so much for joining the future work podcast. How are you today?
Vicky Oliver [00:00:43] Really good, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate being here.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:00:47] It’s a pleasure. And I think this topic that we’re gonna be discussing is very important, especially in today’s work environment. We’re gonna talk about self-sabotage in the workplace and how we ourselves are holding us back. And so you’ve helped thousands of professionals navigate their careers and workplace challenges. What initially drew you to this passion of helping others within their professional sphere?
Vicky Oliver [00:01:13] Thank you for asking. I started as a copywriter in the advertising business. And eventually, at the time, advertising was a real revolving door. And I looked for thousands of jobs myself. So I had pounding the pavement experience. And at the same time, I began to rise in an organization. And I got to the level where I was hiring people. For my team, you know, I became a creative director and I was hiring people for my team and they would roll in and they’d be 10 minutes late, they would have no idea who I was, no idea, who the clients were or the ad agency, right, and I’d be sitting there in my head thinking you are blowing this buddy, you are blowing this interview so badly and one day I’m going to write about it and I thought about it a hundred times, I’m gonna write this, I’m, gonna write about job interviewing and one I just did. That’s what happened.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:02:11] Okay, so it’s from your own personal experience and seeing how these candidates were really not stepping up their game, huh? And I mean, you’ve written five best-selling books. Congrats on that, by the way. Which of them do you feel resonates most with today’s work environment?
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Vicky Oliver [00:02:30] Well, I would say 301 smart answers to tough interview questions resonates because a lot of people, you know, for whatever reason today are without work. So they have to find a job, you know, but once they find a job, I think bad bosses, crazy co workers and other office idiots helps people. You know, we’ve all had people right?
Daniel Lamadrid [00:02:53] Yep, yep, yep. I mean, and again, back on the topic that we’re gonna be discussing, you recently wrote an article for us on allwork.space that has been catching a lot of attention, especially the idea that we may be the ones holding ourselves back. What inspired you to write that? Are you seeing, is it from your own personal experience that you have held yourself back in a professional manner? Is it what you’re seeing out there? What motivated you to right this one?
Vicky Oliver [00:03:22] I do see it out there, but I started the article with a personal anecdote of my own where very early in my career, I was going to be promoted and I was so terrified that I would screw it up, that I was like, no, no no, don’t promote me. Let me do practice ads. Let me learn that way. Give me assignments. Don’t give me real things to do. And I really put myself back.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:03:50] It’s, it’s sort of like imposter syndrome, isn’t it? We’ve had a recent episode about that. And I mean, seven out of 10 people struggle with imposter syndrome per the latest data. Do you, do you see that being one of the key factors in us holding ourselves back? Is it something else? Is it fear of success? What, what, what was going through your mind at that time that made you experience that?
Vicky Oliver [00:04:15] I think it is imposter syndrome. I feel that at that time, I had no idea how to write an ad, you know, and then suddenly I wrote actually, I actually wrote a radio script, and it made two and a half million dollars for that client. And they were like, Oh, it’s great. You know, why don’t you become a junior copywriter? I’m like, Copywriter? Like, I don’t know how to read copy, you know, like I hadn’t gone to school to write copy. I don’t know how to write copy. You know, and the whole thing just seems so intimidating and beyond me. But beyond that, a lot of times what happens is somebody’s in a particular business, right? And they’re doing a task. Let’s just pretend they’re a great research, right. Okay, everyone’s complimenting them all the time about the research, but then they’re promoted, let’s just say, to a level where they’re supposed to be managing people. Right? But they don’t know how to manage people. It’s like, how do I, you know, people, they’re not getting along on the team. I don’t what to do. Nobody taught me how to managed people. So, I think that’s part of the problem. Like, we’re not being trained and because of that, we feel like we’re imposters, you
Speaker 3 [00:05:28] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Vicky Oliver [00:05:29] Feel like you’re an imposter until you aren’t anymore. Then suddenly you learn how to manage people or whatever the thing is, and then you’ve conquered it. But in the beginning, it’s like being thrown into a pool. I don’t know how to swim.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:05:43] Yeah, yeah, definitely. So would you say that this is a top down issue or a bottom up one, or is it a mix of both? Is it, is it more the responsibility of an enterprise of a company of a manager to train someone to get to a higher level, or is it a responsibility of our own to acquire new skills on a constant basis, because I mean, the future of work right now with everything that’s happening with AI and technology, soft skills are the ones that will make or break. Someone to achieve a higher level of success in the professional world. What do you think?
Vicky Oliver [00:06:19] Well, I think it depends on the economy, and it depends on the particular workplace. Like, for example, in the old days, let’s say six years ago, there might have been mentors, right? And maybe if you were growing up in a company, you could find somebody that would teach you some things or help you, you know, through these obstacles. All right. But a lot of times now there aren’t any mentors. There are no mentors. So how do we do it? You have to mentor yourself and you have to convince yourself like, oh, I have to keep learning. I have to keep doing this and you will have to tell yourself that even if nobody else is telling you to do it, you mean. So I think it’s both.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:07:02] No, I, I get it because I mean, and that’s, that’s happened to me on a personal basis, I’ve had bosses and managers and I’ve never had a mentor up until now, um, and it’s just a very, very different type of, um. How do you say this? I want to say role play, but it’s not role play. It’s just the very different dynamic when you actually have someone rooting for you and wanting you to, to, to, achieve a higher level of success, even if it means that you’re going to take your mentors job, you know what I mean? It’s this really truthful. Benefits that they provide you. I think we should write an article about that because I don’t think that a lot of people understand what the difference is between a boss, a manager, and an actual mentor.
Vicky Oliver [00:07:53] I mean, one thought I have about mentors is that because in many companies there are no mentors and there’s no mentoring system anymore. One thing I think is that people have to figure out their own mentors and find their own mentors. A mentor is only somebody who really cares about you, who cares about your success and wants to see you get ahead. That’s it, right? It doesn’t have to be your boss. It doesn’t have to be your boss’s boss or somebody that you work for it could be an old boss you had It could be a friend of yours. It could me somebody who’s 10 years younger than you It’s somebody who wants to see you get ahead and gives decent advice That you want to follow, you know And they’re championing you and you can talk to somebody, you Know think think you know, it could me your mother. It can be anybody who really cares about you
Daniel Lamadrid [00:08:44] And you mentioned this in the article. I mean, we live in a world of fast disappearing mentors. What would you, what would your advice be to someone? Which as we’re talking about, it’s mostly everyone. It’s very rare that someone has a true mentor. Why would your advise be to someone that does not have a mentor and rather a boss or a manager to, to achieve a higher level of success in their careers? What would you say to them?
Vicky Oliver [00:09:13] I would say try to gather around you a group of people that you can consult. This can be, let’s say you went to college with somebody and they’re doing really well in a different field. You can consult that person. They have still navigated a lot of office politics. You can get an old boss of yours. You can consult somebody who works for you if need be. It doesn’t really matter. The point is to find great advice and then to follow that advice. And that I think will get you through a lot of sticky situations at the office, even if they are not like your direct supervisor.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:09:56] Yeah, no, definitely. And there’s actually a science behind this. The people you surround yourself with will eventually make it so that you grow or not. This is gonna sound kind of harsh, but let’s say in an office setting, if you’re surrounding yourself with… How can I say this? I wanted to say losers, but if you surrounding yourself with… I said it, but if you’re surrounding yourself with the complainers, the ones that are always trying to revolutionize with no actual meaning, you’re just going to stay there. And like you said, you got to surround yourself with the ones that have the most experience with the ones that will actually engage your mind and change your mindset. If you don’t have a mentor and if you have a mentor, well, then you’re good. Right.
Vicky Oliver [00:10:40] Right, and you know, they need to champion your success. You know, a mentor can’t be a frenemy. You know? They cannot be taking pride in your downfall. They have to want you to move ahead.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:10:54] Yeah, yeah, yeah. You mentioned seven self-destructive tendencies that usually we end up falling in, if you will. The first one is imposter syndrome, which we briefly covered. And we’ll link in our episode page more information about this because I think this is a very, very unique topic. And I believe that everyone is struggling with this right now. I myself will admit that I am a victim. If you will, I don’t want to play the victim, but of imposter syndrome, it’s happening. It happens to me every day. Can I really do this? Why was I put here? Et cetera, et cetera. But the second one really caught my, caught my eye and it’s, uh, fragility. What, what, what do, what you mean by this? What, What is, what is fragility? How is that holding us back? Can you go a little bit more in depth into that?
Vicky Oliver [00:11:44] Sure. I mean, when people criticize us, we break inside, you know, all we’re trying to do is please our boss, you know. But then what is it? She never says a good word. She never says, Wow, what a great job. She ever pats you on the back, you know? She kind of walks right by and kind of expects you to be fantastic, right? And if you are too thin skinned, this is a problem. And sometimes it’s not your fault. In fact, I think most of the time it isn’t your fault, it’s that your boss has no training in how to manage people, right? So you’re not getting the approval that you need and you feel weak and you also feel like, oh, I’m walking on eggshells with this person. You know? And that’s really, really, really hard, it’s very, very difficult. But… I think that sometimes you just have to sort of, you know, you have to pat yourself on the back. You have to say, I am doing a fantastic job. You know, look in the mirror and say, I’m doing a great job, you know? And just pat yourself up and figure like, this is the type of boss you have that doesn’t give compliments, right? She only gives criticism, no compliments, all right? You have compliment yourself. This is not a false pride. It’s just being like you are, it’s self-protection.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:13:13] I definitely agree and I hope I don’t get canceled after saying this, but I believe that, I mean, I’m a millennial and an old one, so I’m an old millennial, and I’m sorry, but, I think today’s workforce, which is fast growing Gen Z and Alpha is coming in, they’re just a little bit too fragile. They are seeking that constant approval. And it’s like you said, and there’s actually data to prove this. Companies tend to not want to hire certain profiles because it makes the office environment or the team environment feel like they have to walk on eggshells, like you said. Would you agree? Do you have any thoughts on that? Maybe that’s just my, that’s my own personal opinion. But I think today’s workforce is just very, very fragile and I don’t think they’re gonna advance.
Vicky Oliver [00:14:06] They’re fragile. And you know, I think it has to do with the way people it all comes down in the end to like how you were raised, you know. And a lot of people today, like they get awards for participation. You know, this is like, okay, but in the old days, right, you just had to go to school. You got participation, you just have to be there, right. And if you took too many sick days, what was the problem? It’s just, you know, if you’re constantly rewarded and receiving like awards and citations for something that’s just you should be there. You know, half of life is growing up, right? So I think that that’s part of it. It’s that they’re used to being complimented a lot and given like a lot of false praise, right. And then they get into an environment where they’re not getting as much praise and it’s confusing. You know, a lot of self-talk and just knowing when you yourself have done a fantastic job goes a long way to building confidence. Like, the confidence has to come from inside you, not really from what other people give you.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:15:12] Definitely. I definitely agree. Um, so imposter syndrome, fragility, tech, tech anxiety. I mean, I suffer from anxiety just on a, on a general basis, but the tech, if you add technology in there, it’s a daily thing. I mean every day technology is just one step ahead of us. It’s, it’ hard to keep up in any industry. I would say, especially now with AI, right? Um How can, how can we not be held back? Because of the advancements of tech. I love this one quote, which I forgot who this is from, but, and I really live up to this one, because I believe in today’s world, people are just so scared of AI because they think AI is gonna take their job, right? AI will automate a lot of jobs, but it will create more, right, if a million jobs are taken by AI, that will create two million more, because there’s always. Uh, need of human supervision, at least of AI. But AI itself is not going to take your job. Someone who understands AI and leverages AI will take your
Vicky Oliver [00:16:29] Wait,
Daniel Lamadrid [00:16:30] What do you think?
Vicky Oliver [00:16:31] I agree with you. I absolutely Well, first of all, I mean, even today on this podcast, there was a little bit of tech anxiety right in the beginning of this.
Speaker 3 [00:16:40] Yeah
Vicky Oliver [00:16:41] Something when I mean when I hopped on to like there was a little bit of a glitch or whatever and you’re like Oh my gosh, you know, and it’s it is true that Technology advances so fast, right and you learn one set of protocols And then suddenly it’s like a new system and you have to learn all new protocols and it’s very, very anxiety producing and for middle manager, very. But also at the top, they have to keep their people like always learning, always learning always learning. And just that thing where you always have to jump higher and higher and hire and hire just to do the same job you were doing yesterday. It does create a lot of anxiety. So… I would say there’s a couple of ways you can approach like strategies people can use. I mean one strategy is to just keep learning and I think in today’s environment that’s probably the smartest strategy. Keep learning, you know? If you’re doing WordPress today and then a new WordPress system comes on, learn it. You know? Take the time. And it always is at the worst possible time too. That’s the other problem with it. Like let’s say you say, okay, I’m not gonna learn it today, but I’m gonna learn two weeks from today. Well, two weeks for today, you now, everything that like the shit is hitting the fan, you know, clients are screaming, you know projects are falling through. And then you’re like, okay, I’m going to do it three weeks from now today, you know. You’re pushing it down, right? And then suddenly there’s a day where you absolutely have to learn it because it just won’t work, you know, period, right. So I think the best strategy is to make appointments with yourself to learn the new tech. That’s obviously the smartest strategy. But if you are still kind of a light-eyed and you really just can’t even deal with it, the other way to do it is probably to surround yourself with expertise. Who will try to find people who are strong in the areas that you are weak in
Daniel Lamadrid [00:18:39] Yes, I definitely agree. And this might not apply to everyone in an office setting, maybe, but if you’re a remote worker like me, it sometimes gets lonely, it gets lonely. And I made it my mission to. Go inquire and join a coworking space because I wanna surround myself potentially with people in my same industry, people that will teach me new things that I could teach new things to. There’s always a way, right? And even I won’t mention any brands but there are online courses for like five bucks and you can get a certificate and you learn something for five bucks for an hour. It really is possible. It’s just like you said. Setting this time with yourself to actually do it.
Vicky Oliver [00:19:31] Right now, I learn Photoshop. I’m trying to learn Photoshop, I’m just so basic in it, and I want to learn more of it and be better at it. So I put aside an hour or two every Friday, and I sit down, and I go to tutorials that they have, and exercises that it gives me, and sometimes I bring people along with me. You know, to learn with me. It’s just, it’s very helpful. Just set the time and say, I have to do this.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:20:04] I definitely agree. I do the same, but on a Saturday morning, I get my computer. I go to the nearest cafe, have a little brunch with myself and I do something either the next chapter of my current course, or I’m looking at other courses. Whatever it is, but setting that time aside, like you said, is very important. Switching, switching a little bit off of tech, the workplace today rewards confidence, right? So we need to be confident in what we do, but you warn about pride and impatience. How can we find that line between assertiveness and sabotage? And I’ll give one quick example. And I’ve read there’s these young students soon to be professionals that join these elite schools and think that because they’ve joined these schools They will graduate and get a job and just because I I I went to this school or this school But it turns out it’s not it’s true. It’s actually quite the opposite nowadays Is is this somehow what you’re talking about with pride and impatience? What do you mean?
Vicky Oliver [00:21:14] Well, I mean, there’s a couple of issues. Like right now in the workplace, there are four generations of workers still there in the workplace, right? Some say five, I say four. And so they’re going to be some people in the work place, who quote unquote, what they used to call paying their dues, they paid their dues. Maybe they worked for three years in a particular job before they promoted, right? And it was a long, hard climb up, you know? And those people now are maybe retiring or they are the decision makers actually in that company and they don’t really know that when somebody walks in and says, well, I’ve been here six months, how come you can’t promote me? So one issue is that all the generations in the workplace And so somebody older is going to look at somebody very impatiently. They’re going to say, well, wait a second. I, I paid my dues and you are not paying your dues, you know? So there’s that factor. There’s that better. But beyond that, there’s also, I would just say, you know, how the company is doing. So if a company is. Doing well, it means they’re bringing on new people. Their promotions are happening. They’re in a hiring mode. And if a company is like in retraction, they’re maybe letting people go or firing people and they’re retracting. So some of it also has to do with just timing, just pure and simple timing, you know? When you go in to ask your boss for a raise, is your company doing well that afternoon or is the company retracting? Had they just fired 20 people? You know, now you can make the argument, well, they just fire 20 people, so there’s more more money. That’s sometimes true. But also a better strategy is to wait until a company is doing gangbusters like they have gained business. They’re in the hiring mode. They’re moving forward, you know, that is a good time to ask for a raise. A bad time is when they’re not. So if you keep going in every three months and say, well. Now I’ve been here eight months, I want to raise. Now I have been here 10 months, I want a raise. It’s, you come off as nagging, and instead of a person that’s solving a problem, you’re becoming a problem. You’re nagging is problematical, you know?
Speaker 3 [00:23:36] Yeah.
Vicky Oliver [00:23:37] That, I think, you know, somebody really, it’s not just about like your interiority, about pride or whatever. It’s also about taking the temperature and knowing like how is this team in this company today doing? And then of course, just even like more globally, beyond that, how is your industry doing? Is the industry growing or is it really contracting? And you have to weigh these things. And these things matter when it comes to getting raises and promotions.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:24:14] Definitely. And I mean, this is from my own personal experience. And I tell my friends this and I tell my little brother this. I’ve worked for both fortune 500 companies and startups. And what I would recommend to people out there, but don’t take my work for it is to start in a smaller type company where there is a vision for growth. You’ll grow faster in a small. Then in a big one where everyone’s competing with each other. That’s just my personal experience. You will grow faster and a startup, um, then in a company that has millions of employees, it’s just the latter is harder. Right? The, the, the corporate ladder gets taller and taller with, with big companies. Um, we’ve talked about the need for praise. We’ve, we’re gone over that listeners learn to give yourself your own praise. There are people out there that don’t give it. And just because of that, you should not be held back or feel bad. But you also talk about, um, blabber about impulses. What are these? Because. As a writing teacher and a non-fiction editor, good communication plays a role in everything that we’re discussing. What are these blabbermouth impulses and how does communication play a role in everything we’re talking about?
Vicky Oliver [00:25:37] Yeah, that’s a really interesting question. I feel like a lot of it depends on your one on one relationship with your supervisor. And I feel like some people are great communicators. They’re very clear. And they say what they mean. All right. People are very passive, aggressive, and they don’t say what They mean. Some people, you know, are emailers, like email, email, email. Other people are like, let’s walk down the hall. Other people are, let’s do a Zoom meeting, you know, in 10 minutes. Some people are great communicators, some people are over communicators. But I feel like if you are kind of in the middle, or let’s just say if you’re reporting to somebody, I think the trick is to figure out what type of a communicator your boss is and to kind of work with that.
Speaker 3 [00:26:28] Yes.
Vicky Oliver [00:26:30] So your boss is the type of person that really doesn’t like to sit down and chat, don’t sit down. Don’t sit down on Monday morning and say, Oh, you want to hear about my weekend?
Speaker 3 [00:26:41] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Vicky Oliver [00:26:41] Don’t do that. If your boss is sort of a look-over-your-shoulder type of person, you know, let them look over your shoulder. Let them see your list and like what you’re doing that day. Talk to them about it. Like try to get along with people. And I think this is the secret thing I feel with all business. The secret is like getting along with the different personality types that you will find there and recognizing who that person is. And maybe why they’re that that way and then just trying to acclimate yourself to them rather than having them acclulate to you. You acclinate to them.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:27:21] That’s very good advice. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Yes That sort of happened to me on a personal experience. I’m, I was born in Mexico, so I’m Mexican, right? And I work for an American company, right. And there were so many, not language barriers, but communication barriers. And I learned to adapt to the way that Americans work, because I was falling behind. Here in Mexico, we have this tendency to think that if we’re emailing someone a lot or asking them or following up We’re bothering them and I was taught the hard way that you’re actually not Reminding people if things are just it’s just like a nudge Right to someone and it’s it’s its it’s sort of a good thing. I learned But you’re definitely right. You need we need to learn to adapt to work with others and not expect that others will do the same
Vicky Oliver [00:28:18] Yeah, I think that’s great. And you could just act. I mean, one really easy thing to do is just to ask them. But when you first start working with somebody, just sit down and just say, how do you like to communicate? Do you want a weekly update? Do you want it every three days? You know, suggest things that will work for you, obviously, right? What the person wants and then try just try to do that. Try to do what they’re asking for. It’s not very difficult. Look at yourself, I think, as a problem solver. And this is going to solve a problem there. And you’re just going to be like smooth and seamless and just go with it. And I think this often like is very, very, helpful. You know, and then when you become a manager, when you are leading other people, you know, try to tell them like, oh, this is kind of like the way I like to work, you know? Like maybe somebody pops in every six seconds and like asks questions, but that doesn’t work for you because it’s interrupting your flow. Tell people like in the nicest way, you know let’s do it this way. Let’s try it this, you now, and try to like, you know adjust. The other thing I feel is important is that You’re working someplace, ask for feedback, but be careful of how often you do it. I would say try to get feedback before your performance review comes up. Try to sit down, like let’s say you start someplace and then try to sit with that person like after two or three months, just informally. And try to see what you’re doing right and what you aren’t doing right and then you can micro correct it. You can make corrections to the way you are coming across so that when the review, the actual review comes, you know, you shine.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:30:12] Yeah. Or you’re, or you’re actually saying like, Oh, I’ve been working on this since our last conversation changes or that’s actually very smart. I’ve never thought about that. It’s, it’s a getting ahead of the curve.
Vicky Oliver [00:30:23] Right. It’s getting ahead of the curve and try, you know, but to do that again, going back to the thin skin problem, have a little bit of a tough skin because if you ask someone for feedback, you will get feedback.
Speaker 3 [00:30:35] You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Vicky Oliver [00:30:37] You may not love it, you may not love the feedback that you get. But the trick is to sort of like treat it almost like the person is a mentor, even if they aren’t. Like, oh, that’s interesting. I didn’t know I was doing that. Thank you, I’m gonna work on that. You know, and create a plan with the person where you do kind of work on that issue so that when the real review comes, you’re like fabulous.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:31:04] Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re one step ahead. That’s great advice. That’s good advice. We’re nearing the end of our episode and you mentioned at the beginning that you’ve had experience hiring people. You were in high level companies. Do you have any quick etiquette tips for 2025 and beyond? What’s a major don’t that still surprises you and you’re like, why are people still doing this? Or Why are companies still doing this? It could be both ways.
Vicky Oliver [00:31:35] I think the major, it’s a do and a don’t. I think a major do is do your homework on the person. Do your homework, on the the person, find out. It’s so easy to find out everything about anybody today, right? Yeah, too easy I would say. You can go on LinkedIn, you can go on Google, you could go on their website, you can on the company’s website. There’s like a million ways, right. You can on X. Right, you can go on TikTok. I mean, if you can’t find out every single every single thing about a person in one hour, I would be very surprised. Okay. Yeah. About the person who the person is. All right. But don’t be like a stalker, you know, don’t walk in like, Oh, you know, I read every single thing about you. And I know every single think about you and did it because that’s just creepy and weird. Right. So it’s like a combination of like, you know it. But then you restrain yourself somewhat.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:32:33] Definitely. Thank you so much for joining us. I mean, this, this has really been an amazing episode. I think our listeners will, we’ll get a lot of insights and tips from this. Um, is there any way someone can reach out to you? What’s the best way someone could reach out you get to know more about the books you’ve written? We will link those anyways, so that our listeners have easy access to that. But is there anyway, someone can reach out to you in any way for anything?
Vicky Oliver [00:32:59] Thank you so much. It’s just very simple. It’s like bookieoliver.com, B-I-C-K-Y, oliver. Com. My books are listed there. They’re on Amazon. They’re in places where books are sold. And there’s also a lot of articles on my website. And if someone has a burning question, they can write to me and I will answer them. And that way.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:33:22] That’s amazing. And I, we’ve never actually done this before. Um, and I have three burning questions. Let’s go for the first one. What do you think is the biggest career myth you’d like to bust?
Vicky Oliver [00:33:39] Follow your passion. That’s the biggest pyramid. Because your passion-
Daniel Lamadrid [00:33:45] So don’t follow your passion, is what you’re saying.
Vicky Oliver [00:33:46] You’re saying. You have to, you can follow it but you also have to make money, right? Otherwise, you know, yeah, you know what I mean? Follow your passion living in a tent on the street, right. You need to be able to sustain yourself. However, it is that you do that, you have to make a little bit of money in addition to following your passion. You can’t just follow your passion. Unless it pays off.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:34:11] Exactly. And when I was reading this burning question out loud, I was trying to think myself, what is the biggest one I’d like to bust? I think that one, I think I second you on that one. I know a lot of people that follow their dreams and wanna make a living off their dreams, follow their passion, and that’s all great. But if everyone did that, everyone would be living the dream. So it’s not true, it’s real. It might be for 0.05% of the people, but I definitely agree. And you need money to follow your passion.
Vicky Oliver [00:34:45] You need mind to follow your passion and you know, there’s no there’s no shame in following your passion as a hobby either, you know.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:34:53] At least at the beginning, call your passion as a hobby while you’re still making money some other way. And then at some point in time, both will come, you know, I mean, yeah, yes.
Vicky Oliver [00:35:05] Body and soul together.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:35:07] Yes, what do you think is, second question, what do think is the most underrated workplace skill in 2025?
Vicky Oliver [00:35:17] OK, I hate to say this, but probably technology is because people know what it is like, oh, you have to do it. You know, oh. But the truth is, as we’ve described, it’s like you’re always learning. So actually, it’s a fantastic skill to have. And I think the people who don’t have it underrate it.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:35:37] Uh, yeah, I agree. And in the case of AI, I know a lot of people that know how to use AI, but to make these like funny images and stuff, like learning AI to get ahead, stop playing around, you know, um, and AI is technology, so yes, and this last one. Maybe this will be a hard one, but is there a book other than your own that everyone should read, which would it be?
Vicky Oliver [00:36:02] So this goes back to the 1930s.
Speaker 3 [00:36:06] Okay, wow.
Vicky Oliver [00:36:06] I think Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People is a must read. I, you know, you learn a lot about dealing with criticism, maybe withholding some criticism and I think about yourself as you read the book.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:36:25] Awesome. I’m actually going to look into that one. Cause just the title really, really stood out. Vicky, thank you so much again for joining us. I really appreciate you coming and joining us on the future work podcast. And I hope we get to chat again soon. Thank you so much for having me.
Vicky Oliver [00:36:40] This is a great conversation and I’m very happy to be here.
Daniel Lamadrid [00:36:44] I loved it as well. And I was very, very nervous at the beginning as always, but this just was an amazing conversation and I’m really grateful to you. Thank you so much and enjoy the rest of your day and we’ll meet soon. If it’s impacting the future of work, it’s in the Future of Work podcast by allwork.space.
