According to experts, losing a job ranks in the top 5 most stressful life events, and 40% of people will be fired at some point in their career. 

Being fired can be embarrassing and can take some time to recover from. There are a lot of emotions that stir inside of you when you get let go including anger, guilt, fear or maybe even relief. With all of these emotions tumbling inside of you it can be easy to make bad decisions.

Listen in on how to navigate being let go and how to bounce back from it.  

Drink of the week:Keiths Termination Cocktail

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Have you ever been fired?

You know, gotten ax terminated?

Shit canned, released from your position?

Well, if you have, then you're not alone.

40% of people will be fired at some point in their career.

Welcome to episode 1 26 of This Shit Works, a podcast dedicated to

all things networking, relationship building, and business development.

I'm your host, Julie Brown, speaker, author, and networking coach,

and today I'm discussing how to bounce back from being let go.

I've been fired a couple times in my life.

, I.

Shocker, but one particular time I was let go felt like an absolute calamity

and made me question my sense of self.

According to experts losing a job ranks in the top five most stressful life events.

The four others being losing a loved one, divorce, moving

or serious illness or injury.

So, . Losing your job for any reason completely punches your ego.

In the tits it hurts.

It can be embarrassing and it can take some time to recover from.

There are a lot of emotions that stir inside of you when

you are let go, including anger.

Guilt, fear, maybe even relief.

With all of these emotions tumbling inside of you, it can

be easy to make bad decisions.

In general, we never make good decisions when anger, guilt,

and fear are driving the bus.

So if you do get let go, don't do anything rash like sending half-cocked

emails to people in the company ranting on LinkedIn or anything

else that might make you look un.

With that said, here are some tips for navigating and

bouncing back from being let go.

The first thing to do is to just breathe.

Take a few days to catch your breath, to process what has happened

and think rationally about what you want your next steps to be.

A lot of people just jump right into go mode, looking for a new job that same day.

You shouldn't do that.

You should give yourself a couple of days to settle and think long and hard

about what you want your next step to be, what you want your next job to.

During these days, also go online and file for unemployment benefits.

You may not need them.

Hopefully you were given a severance package or you were able to negotiate

one, but get the ball rolling.

In any case, if you were given a severance package, please do not

sign it until you have a lawyer.

Look at it.

And hopefully you've networked enough that you have a lawyer in your network who you

can call on and they'll do you a solid.

This is what I did when I was let go.

I asked if I could have a lawyer look at the package and the company said yes,

and I ended up doubling my severance package and also my continued healthcare

package with the guidance of my lawyer after he read the severance package.

That, I won't lie, it felt awesome to, to more than double my severance

package, but it also allowed me to not have to rush into another job because

I was, I, I wasn't worried about the fact that I wasn't collecting a

paycheck or didn't have healthcare.

I had it for enough time that I could take my time and think

about what I wanted to do next.

of course, I'm gonna tell you to start reaching out to your network.

But before you do that, you need to have the narrative around

you being let go, figured out.

Meaning what are you going to tell people?

Were the circumstances of you being let go?

Was it company restructuring?

Downsizing, whatever it was.

Make sure you have that story ready to tell so everyone is

getting the same story from you.

And if you work in a rumor mill kind of industry, this can help you mitigate

some of the chatter, uh, that might go around about why you were let go.

Then it's time to get clarity on what you want.

It's hard for your network to go to work for you if they don't

know what you're looking for.

So be clear on the kind of job you are looking for and the kind

of introductions that are most beneficial to you so that you can

be really strategic with your time.

Remember, 85% of jobs are filled through networking, so this is the

time to make networking your job while you are looking for your next.

At the same time, you know, clean up and update your resume,

including your LinkedIn profile.

Take the time to ask people in your network who are close to you or

who have worked with you to write positive recommendations for you

on LinkedIn so that you have a ton of social proof when companies and

recruiters are looking at you online.

Speaking of recruiters, now would be a good time to connect with them so that

they can help you look for your next.

Now remember, like I said, at the top of this episode, 40% of people will be let go

from a job at some point in their career.

You may feel isolated when this happens.

You may think it doesn't happen to anybody else, but the truth is it happens to

almost half of the population at some.

Also remember that losing a job, it does rank up there as one of the top five most

stressful events to happen in your life.

So give yourself some grace.

This is hard.

It can be heartbreaking.

It can bruise your ego, but you will get past it.

Make sure you are taking care of yourself physically and mentally during this.

I know from experience that being let go can be one of the most devastating

things to happen in your career, but it can also be the catalyst for you to

make big moves to change everything and being let go might just end up being the

best thing that ever happened to you.

That's what happened to me, and that's what I will be talking about

in my next solo episode in two.

now onto the drink of the week, which continues the theme that there is

always a drink for every episode.

This week's drink is aptly named Keith's termination cocktail.

Here's what you're gonna need.

A third ounce of Jose Cuervo gold tequila, you know, or any, um, gold

tequila, a third ounce of Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey or any whiskey, um,

and a half an ounce of Jagermeister.

Combine the tequila and the whiskey in a shot glass using a small funnel.

Carefully layer the Jagermeister on the bottom of the glass.

They say if layered properly, the shot should have a dark bottom

layer and then a gold layer on top.

I'm not exactly sure , that this has anything to do with being terminated

other than maybe people like, or like, I just got chicken canned.

I'm gonna drink some yay rams.

I don't know.

Anyways, that's all for this week.

Friends, if you like what you heard today, please leave a review

and subscribe to the podcast.

Also, please remember to share this podcast to help

it reach a larger audience.

If you want more, Julie Brown, you can find my book.

This shit works on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

You can find me on LinkedIn at Julie Brown bd.

Just let me know where you found me when you reach out.

I'm Julie Brown, underscore BD on the Instagram, or you can just pop on over

to my website, Julie Brown bd.com.