You’re probably familiar with Sister Hazel’s awesome hit
song “Allfor You” from their platinum-selling album “…SomewhereMore Familiar.” Recently I met
with the band’s lead singer Ken Block shortly after the launch of the band’s
newest album “Lighter in the Dark.” With his signature voice, Ken shared some
rock solid job search insight. In fact,
lots of what Ken says relates directly to using the Signs of a Great Résumé. Not only is Ken a world-renowned performer,
he’s also an entrepreneurial owner of the CYM Coffee Co. and Cymplify Central, the founder of a
nonprofit for pediatric cancer research, Lyricsfor Life, the organizer of The Rock Boat
music festival cruise and the very proud son of an Army veteran. To say the least, he’s a busy guy, so I’m really
glad he made time to chat with me!
Sister Hazel fans are known as “Hazelnuts.” Long before I
was a best-selling author, I was a Hazelnut. I’ve now got 20+ years of memories
connected with Sister Hazel’s music.
Spending time with Ken was a super cool experience for me as a fan, but
also for me as a résumé expert and veterans advocate. Here’s what Ken had to say about his own work
history, what Sister Hazel looks for on a résumé and the values that military
veterans bring to the workforce. Along
the way, I’ll also provide some insight about how his comments relate to using
Signs of a Great Résumé in your job search.
For more of my best tips, visit www.ScottVedder.com.
Scott: Thanks for
chatting with me today. I’m probably on
my 20th year as a Hazelnut.
In fact working one of my first jobs, circa 1996, one of my first
paychecks went towards buying “…Somewhere More Familiar.”
Ken: That’s just
huge and for us to be able to maintain a connection with people for that long we
do not take that for granted. Guys like
you are what allows us to keep going forward and create new music and doing
what we do. So deepest gratitude for
support on that Scott – and for your support on the new record – “Lighter in the Dark.”
Résumé Insight That’s
Full of !@#$%: Ken’s note on
maintaining a connection is relevant in your job search too. Connect with people in your industry BEFORE
you start looking for a job and maintain a network throughout your career. On your résumé you can quantify relationships
you’ve built on the job using !@#$% to express the results those relationships
have yielded.
Scott: My job is
helping people find success in their careers and serving as an expert on
veterans’ résumés. I know your dad
served in the Army. I’ve also seen some
of the philanthropic work you guys have done around veterans, so I just wanted
to pick your brain on how you support veterans.
Ken: There’s a couple of things I’ll say. First and foremost, my dad attributed
everything he was able to do throughout his life to his experience in the
Army. He was a World War II vet and a
Korean War vet and he was in for over 25 years in the Army. It allowed him to further his education,
allowed him to get skill sets where he could really become and entrepreneur and
do different things that he went on to be.
He was also a great musician in his own right.
He went on to become a really great educator and help
start things like the Head Start Program for early childhood education in
Florida and start a couple of little private schools for kids that didn’t quite
fit into the public school system. All
of that came from the tools that he got in the military and the fact that the
GI bill really helped guys at that time pay for their education.
There are so many people that come out of the military
that have such a great skill set. I
would tell small business owners and people looking for responsible,
hard-working, gifted people to tap into that base. Tap into the fact that these are respectable,
integrity-built, hard-working people and it’s a base that I don’t think gets
utilized enough once people get out of the military. I have a real sense of gratitude for what
the military provided for my dad and for our family in general and a real
respect for what those soldiers have to offer after serving and once they get
back into the civilian population.
Résumé Insight
That’s Full of !@#$%: Ken is
absolutely right! He’s referring to the
skills, qualities and values that veterans bring to the civilian
workforce. In Signs of a Great Résumé: Veterans Edition I
encourage military veterans to tell civilian recruiters “I am a P.A.T.R.I.O.T.”
,
Scott: Do you have
any veterans working in the band or in the road crew?
Ken: We don’t have any right now and part of that is
because our crew has been the same crew for about the last 15 years and we
don’t have much turnover!
Scott: If you’re
looking to hire someone, what would you be looking for in a veteran or anybody
else?
Ken: The very same reasons we’ve kept those guys on our
crew are the reasons veterans are so valuable.
They work very well on a team, they help us maintain structure, they
understand responsibility and they understand having a mission. There’s a goal each day. Military guys would fit in really well. Those guys have a skill set that would work
really well for traveling band crews and production and sets.
Résumé Insight
That’s Full of !@#$%: Smart civilians like Ken know the value of hiring
veterans – for all of the reasons he stated.
Savvy employers are looking for these qualities so it’s important to
include the words “military veteran” on your résumé to help recruiting software
quickly identify you as a vet. If you’re
a vet seeking a new job, check out the resources and veteran-friendly employer
links I’ve posted on the Veterans Linkspage my web site.
Scott: I love to encourage people in interviews to
tell stories about their experience to help them get a job. You tell a lot of really awesome stories in
your music. What’s your favorite story
told in a Sister Hazel song?
Ken: I think the
message behind “Change Your Mind” – it’s
not your life, it’s how you choose to look at your life and that shift in
perspective is empowering. I tell
people, it’s not always easy but it’s as simple sometimes as changing the way
you’re looking at something or the way you’re viewing it.
I even do it while I’m taking out the trash at home. I don’t go: “Oh man, I’ve got to take out the
trash.” I go: “I GET to take out the trash.”
I have a house and I have the ability to put groceries in my house. Do I have to take out the trash? Yeah.
But at the end of the day I GET to, it’s a privilege. Just throwing those little switches like that
throughout the day can really be a powerful message.
Résumé Insight
That’s Full of !@#$%: The idea about changing your mind works in your job
search too. In my Signs of aGreat Interview workshops I teach job seekers to use the “perspective
pivot.” You’ll hear an interviewer ask
one question, but you have to listen for what they’re really looking to learn
about and pivot your answer to provide perspective about your experience.
For example, when
you hear “What’s your greatest weakness?” you have to “Change Your Mind” to
respond in a way that showcases why you’re a great candidate for the job. Instead of naming weaknesses, talk briefly
about something you know you’ve needed to work on or to improve upon, how you’ve
made a difference or grown and what the positive results have been. Use an example full of !@#$% from your résumé
to tell the story about how you’re self-aware and improving the way you work.
Scott: You’ve got
a great job now doing what you love, that’s clear. Did you ever have a job prior to Sister Hazel
that made you ask “Man, what am I doing here?”
What was that other job?
Ken: Sure
man! When I was a kid my first job was
working for a tree service over the summer and my job was the chipper
truck. They’d cut off the branches and I
had to feed all those limbs into that chipper machine. And every time I though “I’m gonna lose my
hand in this thing!”
Scott: They let a
kid do that!?!
Ken: It was not fun man.
I did that for like two summers.
The one thing my parents always wanted, and they were always very
supportive of my music, but they said “Look, it’s very important that you get a
degree and a college education and get exposed to different people and
different ideas.” So that was my commitment
to them. That if I was going to shake
down anything, I was going to finish [school] first. I think we may be the only platinum band in
America where all five of us college degrees.
Scott: And
advanced degrees at that!
Ken: Yeah, I actually have a Master’s in Counseling
Psychology.
Scott: How does
that come into your songwriting or how you play with your audience? Do you use that background to play around
with some emotions?
Ken: Well sure I
think that anybody that gets into those kind of things is doing it because they
want to connect with people and help people.
But they’re also trying to sort things out in their own life. I have an interesting past myself. I lost a little brother who was sick for a
lot of my teenage years. We were dealing
with his cancer diagnosis. I had another
family member who was struggling really badly with addiction and stuff at that
time. I really wanted to figure out how
people thought and what made people tick.
What they do and how they handle things.
As a writer, I try to write specifically enough where
people can be sucked into the story and feel a part of it, but ambiguously
enough where people can plug their own lives into it.
Résumé Insight
That’s Full of !@#$%: When you’re writing your résumé you certainly need to write
specifically enough to ensure your recruiter is “sucked in” to the story of
your experience. The best way to do this
of course is to use the Signs of a Great Résumé. Remember, you can use !@#$% to describe your
educational achievements (like Ken’s) too.
Don’t just list classes you took.
Instead, describe projects you worked on or groups in which you were
involved and made a difference. You can
even indicate experience gained in clubs and organizations where you had a
leadership role, where you can quantify the impact you had and you can show how
that experience is related to the job you’re applying for.
Scott: Is there a particular song where you think
your heart is poured into it in a more significant way? I know there’s one that you sing about your
brother and that story.
Ken: Yeah “Running Throughthe Fields” was one I sat down to try to write a thousand times and it just
wouldn’t come out - it just always felt forced.
It just spilled out one night and it seemed to be perfect. And the ones that come easier like that are
the ones that seem to come from a place that I can’t put my finger quite
on.
There’s another one that kind of touches on that it’s a
song I wrote called “Best I’ll Ever Be.” It also sort of taps into that loss of
innocence and that sort of time period.
I didn’t think it was about my brother when I was writing it. But every time I go back and listen since I
wrote it I go “That’s about the emotions that were going on in that time
period.” They’re all different slices of
things.
Scott: You know,
talking about brothers, you did a song “Brothers”with Joe Bachman where you talk about “That’s what being brothers is
about,” and even mentions the Marine Corps.
Any thoughts there?
Ken: Joe is a
great guy and he is a brother to us.
Sister Hazel, as a band, we’ve always prided ourselves on setting a tone
with the other artists and other bands that we’re all in this together. This is not a “battle of the bands,” this is
not a competition. This is about camaraderie.
People ask us all the time “how do you create a music
scene?” or “why are you guys all so close?”
The thing that happened in Gainesville at that time and the thing that
happened on The Rock Boat from the day we started that festival was we all decided
that regardless of genre, if you were a funk band or a country band or an “alt.”
band or whatever, we were all playing original music and we were all trying to
do the same thing which was connect with people. And then once we all started fishing in the
same direction and knew that we had each other’s backs, and that we were there
to lift each other up and not tear each other down, that’s when we all got so
much further and really got to the good stuff which was meaningful
relationships with each other. So we’re
very sibling-like and very brother-like with a lot of the guys we work
with.
Of course early on we flew to Okinawa and we flew to
Korea and we did shows on military bases all over the place in the States as
well and we kept trying to share that same kind of theme. We’re all in this together, we all appreciate
what each other are doing. Joe’s a huge
supporter of the military and that brotherhood and that kinship that we all
feel for each other can get us a lot further than if we’re all pulling in
different directions.
Résumé Insight
That’s Full of !@#$%: One of the Signs of a Great Résumé is the “!” because not
every achievement may have #, $ or % to quantify. I’d certainly say that a “!” achievement for
Sister Hazel is volunteering to travel overseas to support our service
members. This would be particularly
relevant to include on their résumés if they were applying for a job in
international business. The band could
indicate what countries they visited, how they built cultural competency along
the way and their willingness to travel.
I’m just glad they’re willing to travel “all the way” from their
hometown of Gainesville, FL to my turf in Orlando. I get to see them perform almost every year!
Scott: I help a
lot of people with résumés. Do you
happen to have a résumé tip or any kind of insight that you would give?
Ken: I think it’s important to strike a real
balance. Don’t be afraid to point at
things that you’ve done that aren’t necessarily the obvious things. There are things in your life that may not
have been when you were at a specific job.
Things about your character and your personality that you can point to
as qualities that would be impactful and help anybody that would be bringing
you into their organization. Short and
sweet, but don’t be afraid to pat yourself on the back and be clear about what
you bring to the table.
Résumé Insight
That’s Full of !@#$%: Ken’s right again!
A résumé is not just about your work experience – it’s about the
experience, skills and qualities which make you a great fit for the job. In order to express soft skills or
qualitative skills on your résumé, you can use the terms from the job posting
to help draft your Summary of Qualifications.
Look for terms like “strong interpersonal skills,” or “excellent verbal
and written communication skills” and even “fluency in a foreign language” in
the job posting. Veterans should use the
“P.A.T.R.I.O.T.” skills to explain, and where possible, quantify their
values. And remember, all experience
counts. Even if you gained a skill or
experience in a volunteer capacity or in the course of your personal
development, you can describe it using !@#$% on your résumé when it’s called
for in the job posting.
Scott: That’s
great résumé insight from a platinum-selling artist who also arranges The Rock
Boat music festival cruises, and also runs a nonprofit and also has the Cymplify
shop in Gainesville. I don’t know how
you balance it all! Any tips for someone
trying to balance a lot of things in their life?
Ken: A couple things.
Surround yourself with people that you trust and people that share your
vision and your mission. Learn how to
delegate things a little bit. I had to
develop trust making sure that people around me could bring things to the
party. What I’ve found is that if you
surround yourself with the right people, not only will they deliver but they’ll
bring things to another level.
Family has to come first – I will tell everybody
that. If that’s not working, nothing
else is working. Put that first and make
sure you do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do
it, and trust the people around you to do what they do.
And have fun. If
you’re not having fun doing it – and that doesn’t mean it’s not hard sometimes
and that you’re not going to have to follow your faith sometimes – our life’s
in the doing and on the journey. It’s
not in crossing the finish line. So have
a good time with it because that will be what will resonate.
Scott: You brought
up a good point about the diversity of people you surround yourself with and
how you’ve built a diverse team with many skills in Sister Hazel and in all the
journeys you’ve had. Is there a
diversity tip that you would give about people building teams or bringing
people together?
Ken: This is an election year. I’m not going to get political, but what I’ll
say is we have five guys in the band, plus with David [LaGrande] we have six. We have a crew of another six or seven. We have a management team and publicists and
all these people that work together. They
have vastly different ideas when you put somebody together as a Democrat, as a
Republican as a “whatever it is,” and maybe even different spiritual
beliefs.
But what I have found is in 21 years, that even though in
this group we have very different ideas politically (possibly) and spiritually
(possibly), we solve problems together.
We treat people the same way: with dignity, with respect. We treat the janitor the same way we treat
the CEOs. We may not always agree on
exactly the best way to get there, but with compromise, trust and respect, we
all want to get to the same place. We
find a way to move things forward. In that
beauty of that push and pull, as long as it’s done in a respectful way, you can
create things that are far beyond what you could do on your own. It’s the sum of the parts that really make
things bigger.
Scott: That’s
awesome. So one last question about your
new album, “Lighter in the Dark.” The chorus to “Karaoke Song,” a hit featuring Darius Rucker, has been stuck in my head all
night long! If you had a “Go to Karaoke
Song,” what would it be?
Ken: [Jokingly he laughs and says,] I don’t sing anything
by my own songs! Just kidding. I like to sing old songs like old Sam Cooke blues. We covered “Bringit on Home.” I love that real soulful singing that I don’t get to do a
whole lot while we’re on stage. Sam
Cooke’s my “Go to” guy.
Scott: What’s your
favorite track on your new album “Lighter inthe Dark”?
Ken: I like a
couple of them for different reasons.
Live, I like playing “Kiss me WithoutWhiskey.” Singing it’s just sort of
tongue-in-cheek fun. But sonically, it’s
got that that old Allman Brothers, Skynyrd, southern rock, blues feel going
on. I love the extended jam on the piano
solo. On the overall songwriting, I
think Drew [Copeland] came in with a couple songs that were really well
written. “Something to Believe In” is a really
well-written song and of course “Almost Broken”
is really good too.
Scott: Well Ken,
this has really been an awesome, special day for me, as a “crazy Hazelnut.” You’ve made me crack a smile and that don’t look
so bad to me! (Ed. note: That’s a line from their song “Happy.” Ken chuckled at the reference.)
I really hope that
we’ll follow-up around Cymplify because I like the direction you’re heading up
there, the positivity and how you’re helping people.
Ken: Do send a link, I’d love to see check your book out
as well. Nice talking with you and have
a great one!
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