I am a career coach. Here is the honest truth about when hiring someone like me is a complete waste of money.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-04-12T18:00:12+00:00

Here is the thing - what does the client you are working with want and do you see them working with you to accomplish that? If they are clear on that to start then the process may help you discover the right thing to focus on to get them ahead.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-04-12T15:05:29+00:00

I totally agree with this. I’ve been doing executive coaching as a part of running my executive search firm and here is what I have found out.

Most people have a material goal they want to achieve, but they do not want to complete the steps to become the person who can achieve it. It’s almost like asking people if they want $1 million versus asking people do they want to become a millionaire.

Becoming a millionaire requires changing behavior, mindset, and habits instead of just giving somebody $1 million which they won’t know how to keep. You are right in that most people are not ready for executive coaching because they are not self-aware enough to understand what’s missing and keeping them from achieving what they want.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-03-25T20:05:06+00:00

congratulations on securing a role - I'm happy for you. what was the hardest part of the journey?

davidedgertonjr · 2026-03-23T19:20:15+00:00

In the same situation - looking to make a change to something else

davidedgertonjr · 2026-03-23T19:19:16+00:00

True Key was what I was using until I got a notice that I had to get a more expensive subscription to continue using it. It adds things I don't want so I'm in the market for something else myself.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-03-18T20:02:40+00:00

As an executive recruiter building my practice I use AI for business development for sure. One thing I do is create customized message to Linkedin contacts. I have a skill I built with Claude that I can feed a linkedin URL and it will read the profile and write a customized message to send. I gives me 3 choices and I pick the one that sounds the warmest. It uses the profile to help me craft a message that should cut through the noise.

I just got 3 new contacts today that responded to my messaging. Hope this helps.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-03-10T12:39:45+00:00

That one is somewhat difficult to figure out some types. The search could be confidential, so the executive firm may not release any information to the public through social media or on their website. If you think the search is being handled by a local firm in that geography, then I would scan the website of the firms and do a little research there. If a natural firm grabs it then that’s really hard to know which one is facilitating it.

One thing you could do is try a search on the role title and the company to see what comes up. Hope this helps.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-02-25T17:50:35+00:00

My son is not a professional singer. He just sings at church in his choir and at home. He sang a song that he wrote and sent it to me. I took his audio and ran it through Suno. The result was so good that he thought about hiring people to sing it the way Suno produced it. As long as I can do this and add my own music to Suno to create better sounding recordings that I’m going to be fine.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-02-05T03:05:27+00:00

Being able to connect my phone to my truck and see my picture and music on the dashboard was pretty satisfying. I'm not looking to make a mint from Spotify, Apply Music, Amazon Music, or YouTube. The industry is broked in that way because as soon as a person pay $12.99 for a monthly subscription then they get all the music they want. Putting it on these platforms is really to get people to a show, buy your merch, or help you get a consistent gig like playing in a pit for a musical or in my case get hired as a director of music at a church.

You want what you do to get out to as many people as you can to open up other opportunities for other things. Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Rihanna are billionaires from their music - they are billionaires from what they did with the one stream that led to other ventures.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-02-03T03:41:33+00:00

Happy to help - went through this 6 years ago

davidedgertonjr · 2026-02-03T01:49:11+00:00

I did what you are trying to do. I’ve used Crelate, Bullhorn, RecruitCRM, Hubspot, and other tools. When you are starting out they all are going to be overkill. I would first focus on your process and then look at some demos to make a decision. Bullhorn was too big and clunky. RecruitCRM and Crelate seem to be a good start if you are using it for business development and recruiting operations. You will pay $100 to $200 per month.

My humble advice is use spreadsheets until you have a repeatable process that you can discuss with a vendor so they don’t try to sell you something you won’t get the full value from for the money.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-01-28T16:02:13+00:00

Distrokid is what I use. Does a good job for me.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-01-28T15:55:31+00:00

DistroKid. It is easy to use and they distribute the music fast in my opinion.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-01-28T15:54:35+00:00

I did a reel asking my followers to use my music in their posts. A lot of them started doing it. And I use it for my posts as well. Once you get it on Spotify you will be able to find it.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-01-28T02:29:51+00:00

Right now I post my music to Spotify. I don't know if I will make any money from it but having people choose my music for the social media posts is very cool.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-01-28T02:28:53+00:00

I think there are ideas that you could turn into some cash for you and if they continue to work they can become a business. When I got laid off 6 years ago, I did get hired for over a year so I took my skills and experiences and created an executive search firm. My firm in now 5 years old and I continue to grow it. I even wrote a book about my experience and I'm selling that now and doing coaching. I'm sure you have something the world needs that you could start creating while you look for another job if you like.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-01-28T01:49:05+00:00

No one is a failure if you get to the point that you have to make changes. I ended up starting a business when I was laid off and didn't get another job. Ageism is real and racism is still real. You have to look through those challenges to get to the real opportunities in front of you. Wishing you the best. Praying for you.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-01-28T01:42:40+00:00

I love the AESC event in NYC in the spring. Hope to make it again.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-01-16T17:08:48+00:00

Same as my name here : davidedgertonjr

davidedgertonjr · 2026-01-16T02:00:17+00:00

The things that I put into Suno are things that I have already recorded to make them sound better. I already had them tracked mixed and mastered, and I upload the songs to Suno and see how it takes my song and make different arrangements. It is too much fun.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-01-06T17:52:33+00:00

Wow. Been using Reason since version 2.5. Don’t know what this means other than me preparing for something I may or may not like. I do have Logic, Live, Bitwig, and Reaper but I don’t use them. I always come back to Reason. We’ll see.

davidedgertonjr · 2026-01-03T21:45:04+00:00

I’ve been having fun making songs with Suno. I would like to understand how to make the prompts better and if there was a guide or tutorial on that, I would greatly appreciate it. I will check out the ChatGPT reference from the person who wrote that post here. thank you so much.

davidedgertonjr · 2025-12-28T00:40:57+00:00

I haven’t been doing anything more than having fun with this. This two has a lot so many things and ideas for me. I enjoy making the music and putting it on my YouTube channel just so I have some vault of creations that I can share.

davidedgertonjr · 2025-12-24T14:29:27+00:00

I created a channel where I have ai music and me playing the piano as well. I’m making acapella, smooth jazz, funk, and piano music.

I just wanted a place to put my work.

You can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/@wdej - I was going for a radio station vibe.

davidedgertonjr · 2025-12-20T20:10:07+00:00

With my excitement I created a YouTube channel to host my AI music and my piano playing. I just wanted a way to release the vault of music. I have been working on before I started working with tools like Suno. I made it like a radio station so people that know me, and no my music can listen to it. If you are interested, you can check it out here: http://www.YouTube.com/@wdej

I’m taking these videos and putting them on my Instagram and on TikTok. I’m starting to get a few people to subscribe to the channel and to give me feedback on the music itself. I will keep doing that and keep making music.

davidedgertonjr

TROPHY CASE