From Kicking & Screaming to Acceptance to Success with Dr. Justin Goldston
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:20:20]
Yeah.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:20:20]
And they to because they are interested in these in these topics, they’re bringing stuff to the classroom, they’re looking ahead and electricals. And you see what Tesla did last week. Oh, do you see what you see what Bezos did last week? Whenever he’s trying to he’s trying to launch his new space program just just because Elon Elon did.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:20:40]
Yeah.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:20:40]
It’s amazing.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:20:43]
Very cool. So so you mentioned trying to stay abreast of industry. And obviously there’s only so much that you can do from reading newspaper articles and so forth. What are you doing to keep, you know, to keep a foot on both sides of the aisle, so to speak, and keep the the industry perspective fresh? For the academic side of things?
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:21:06]
I would say I would say part of my responsibilities is to is to stay stay active in the industry and stay on LinkedIn. Because LinkedIn, LinkedIn will give you that real time pulse of the industry.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:21:21]
Yeah.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:21:22]
And and collaborating with those with those thought leaders of the industry. And that actually gives you visibility that actually that actually builds your brand. I was I was collaborating with a number of I’ve been collaborating with industry leaders before I even got a higher education. So I was just a continuation of what I’ve done in the industry. But now that individuals know that I teach at Penn State, you know, a number of them are asking me and reaching out as a way of doing in research in terms of sustainability, what are you doing in terms of this whole block chain thing? What are you all doing in terms of the pandemic? What is Penn State Medical Center doing for the pandemic? So I get invited to a number of I get invited to a number of international conferences, especially because it’s virtual. It’s easy. I just I just update I just updated my my credentials for Penn State last night. And I was counting on that. I think from from August to March of next year, I’ll have 14 conferences. I’ve spoken.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:22:28]
Wow.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:22:30]
And that’s about that would be the positive outcome. That would be the positive outcome of this pandemic, because you’re getting you are collaborating with the world leaders, the world leaders in your industry, you know, on on on on a particular topic. So, for example, I just did a I just did a sustainability and supply chain conference for the Asia-Pacific region last week. And there was one individual that talked about modern day slavery. He did some work for the UN. And he said that. He said that. And I’ll sit here working and listen. He said, now we there is more slaves around the world in all time. I said, why don’t we listen to this thing? So so that that is better. That was very interesting to me because that that kind of falls into the sustainability focus. And and I have outside Penn State also has what we refer to as an edge program where we collaborate with institutions around the world and we we partner and we we essentially blend our two courses and we keep the syllabus or syllabi for each one of our courses. But we we allow them to create a course long project. So I’m going to be working with an individual from from the U.K. and she’s got she’s teaching a consulting class. So I’m going to bring in my strategy class. And we’re going to blend the two and we’re going to collaborate and try to figure out what what what course long project is going to be aligned with both of our learning objectives and what’s going to be applicable to to both parties. So now you have that study abroad, virtual and for free and also most importantly, for free.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:24:12]
My son is this is freshman year in high school and he’s hating the fact that it’s virtual, but that he’s hoping that they’re going to be able get everything set up. The swim team tryouts are supposed to be in a couple of weeks. So he’s hoping to to actually get to see a person, at some point soon. But but they had something similar to what you were just talking about, where they combine their English and civics classes and look at some of these issues that are being written about in literature and being lived in current and past times and fuse them together. And they have projects that cross over. And he has found that to be his most enjoyable class. His dad is a science and math geek, and he’s here in the English lit and civics and just lighting it up. So he’s really enjoying that.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:25:06]
Fine institutions that had strong supply chain programs as well, and the and the director of the program said just and they told me it would be better if you found a class this. No, nothing related to supply chain. She said, for example, we took a we took a a business class and mixed it with the agriculture class and the project. So it was agriculture class was the end was in Colombia? I think. So somebody somewhere in South America. And then the English part of the business class was Penn State. So and of course, project was to understand the economics of of chocolate because we’re close to Hershey. Right. So they kind of get to say, OK, you have a you have a project for Hershey to to to look at the you know, the economics for Hershey or the sustainable practices for Hershey down in Colombia or something like that. So it’s two unrelated classes, two unrelated programs. You know, you’re coming together. But I mean, that’s what happens in business. It’s a beautiful thing.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:26:09]
It is. It is. Listen, you were telling a story a little bit earlier that I wanted to circle back to. You were mentioning how you were teaching supply chain management that you were teaching and then all of a sudden there was there wasn’t really a transition. But you just said and then I built the supply chain management program for one of the schools that was working for. And then you started talking about how you were publishing and getting your brand out there, so to speak. And I’m wondering, how would you describe those two things and how they interact, this big thing that you did and then the branding of that thing in terms of getting those positions to start rolling in? Because after those two things, it seems like that’s when the position started coming in the way you were telling the story.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:26:48]
Absolutely. Absolutely. That is that is where when those when those those positions begin to roll in. Because, you know, people I would I would post things about about the logistics and supply chain program at Wesleyan College and then individuals would share it and other individuals would share it. You know, and I mean, if you if you all are familiar with LinkedIn, you found some amazing articles that show that your peers have shared and you’ve shared it and liked it and things like that. And that’s that’s essentially how you get how you get noticed, right. When the right person likes it or the right person shares it whenever that’s whenever people say it was this just Justin Goldston guy? You know, and but and a perfect, perfect example. So I did a part. I did a positive in podcast. Podcasts are huge to me. And I did a podcast for SAP’s, the largest ERP or vendor in the world. And I did I did a podcast with SAP and this is the co-founder for this blockchain startup contacted me and she said, yeah, I was listen to the podcast. And you said one thing at the very end, the last 30 seconds, she said something and said, Who is this guy? Yeah. So I look at your LinkedIn profile and then you have the you have the Georgetown round table and I listen to that one only on YouTube. I said I have to figure out who this guy is. You I like that. She said she reached out to me only then we got on the phone call and we we’ve been talking for three months now. As a matter of fact, I, I got a podcast with her in thirty minutes. You so so I mean I would and I tell my students, hey, LinkedIn is the most amazing website on the Internet right now. From it from a from a professional development perspective. From a branding perspective. I did a number of TED talks last year. Two of those TED talks came from LinkedIn it. Just because just because of building that personal brand.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:28:45]
Right.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:28:45]
Now, so and I tell my students that you don’t have to you don’t have to write articles on LinkedIn. If you are if you’re in the industry and you find those thought leaders in the industry and you share those thought leaders posts. You know, then then those people, those decision makers in that industry, you’re getting noticed to those people. Right, right. And what another thing that when I’m not one of my students, that she actually she actually will do the way she she blew me away so much. I asked her to come speak at my TED event. So what she did was. She would listen to podcasts or listen to webinars and she would provide summaries for these webinars and podcasts. And now the podcast host would see that and she would like that. And they would say, who is this? Who is this person right now? Now, she’s been invited on a podcast to speak. Now she’s being now she’s being viewed as a thought leader. Now she’s doing a TED talk.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:29:43]
So there’s a lot of just gold in there, I mean, No one you you go out there, you do this personal branding, not just if you’re an entrepreneur and you’re trying to grow your own business, but it helps to get you into large institutions like Penn State. Yes. Regardless as to what you want to do, this personal branding is important. The lady that you just spoke about, she was giving in order to get you go and start giving and before you know it, it’s coming back to you. So so that’s another thing. And a lot of our doctoral students understand this. They want to serve. But when you to hold off until you get your dissertation done. We want to get you graduated. But but then you go out there and serve in those areas that make sense. Write about it. Let folks know what you doing, what you learn, and it’ll come back to you.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:30:33]
Yes. And ask them. That’s another thing where whenever whenever I was invited to to speak at the end of the global women leaders and supply chain conference to deliver the keynote at that conference, it was it was it was the who’s who of females and Supply-Chain in the world. And so I delivered the keynote there and I would say I did my keynote at four o’clock in the morning. I was invited to two other conferences by 11 o’clock the same exact day.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:31:05]
Wow.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:31:06]
You know, and and once once you publish that, OK, I spoke I spoke with the women leaders and Supply-Chain conference, and someone else says that they that they liked your conference. Then you posted they likely that they like yours. You know, it’s that that’s that’s how that’s how that that branding that branding comes on and and now now I’m posting that. I’m speaking at this conference. I’m speaking at this conference. At this conference. You know, and then and then that’s whenever, you know, if you’re in if you’re in that paid speaking thing, I’m not I’m just here to share knowledge. I’m here to share not and not just like Dr. Strickland said, you know, I always do. The money is going to come. I’m not worried about it. I’m just sharing my knowledge, you know? And I would say that I say this time and time again that. If I’m gone tomorrow, nobody’s going to say, man just made a boatload of money. I wanted to say, man, he made an impact. Yeah. You know, and that’s that’s all I want, because the money is going to come. You know, so just my thoughts.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:32:07]
And that really drove this home for me when one of my podcast guests several weeks ago, he had this thing that he said that legacy is what it’s not what they say about you when you’re dead and gone. It’s just what they say about you when you’re gone, like when you leave the room, when you walk away from a group of people at a cocktail party like and that if you think about that way, when he first said that to me, that actually hit home like right in the heart. I was like, legacy isn’t something we do later on and we get to at some point, it’s what you’re doing now. So I think it’s really important to to get some immediacy to this for folks.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:32:49]
That is an excellent point, because I will absolutely admit my industry, the industry, Justin, and I’ll say, man, he’s a jerk. But now, but now, but now I’m here to serve. I’m here to serve. I’m here to share my knowledge. I’m here. I’m here to build future leaders. Like I said, I’m completely transparent. And like I said, I was. And that’s that’s what I say, where 80, 90, 85, 90 percent of MBA students, they’re there to make more money.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:33:20]
Right, exactly.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:33:21]
Make more money. Let’s just be real. Right. And that was my mindset. But what that doctorate degree, I did go with the mindset to say I want to I want to serve. I want it. I want to share. I want to share my knowledge with these future leaders. You know, like I said, that one that one that one day when I was at Morgan State University. That one. That was it. That was that was that was the point right there.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:33:40]
How did that go? So after you heard crickets, what what did you?
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:33:44]
Well, I’m transparent. Right? So I said I said, look. I said, y’all are a couple of weeks away from graduating. I said, just because you have an MBA does not mean a job in your lab.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:34:01]
That’s right.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:34:02]
I said that. I said that you are about to get into the competition, your life in about two weeks. You are about to get into competition with the Wharton, with the University of Maryland, with the Penn States, with the University of Michigan’s, with these top institutions in the world. Right. I said I said Morgan State is an amazing institution. I said, but just put it in perspective. If you are if you were looking at resumes and you see a master’s from Wharton versus Morgan State, again, I’m not knocking Morgan State. Not that not one bit, I think. I said, who do you think they’re going to they’re going to look at? You only got to pick two? Right, and I’m the first person to say, I’m the first person to say that your academics is just one aspect of it is, is this what you’ve done? The industry is to service that you perform, but the majority of hiring managers are going to see that Wharton. You know, so that’s why I say you have to you have to go with a plan and you have to go in with a mindset to say I’m about I’m about to go to battle.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:35:07]
Right.
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:35:10]
But on the on the flip side, on the flip side, I will say that there there’s enough there’s enough jobs go around, there was enough money to go around. Some people will argue that. But there’s enough jobs to go around. There’s enough there’s enough money to go around.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:35:24]
I think that that’s true. And I think that that’s something people need to understand now, that first one can be very difficult. And so what would you tell those folks at Morgan State about getting that first job when they are competing against folks that honestly, we’re going to be real about it? Hiring managers are going to see a lot of applications and the very first time through they’re going to make some easy decisions. And there used to be an old saying way back when that nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM. Same thing’s going to be true for you, go into candidates for top institutions and we’re going to look at you and say, why do you pick this guy? We pick something a little further down the list in terms of the research institutions. And someone might ask, why did you pick this guy? So how do you overcome that? If you’re if you’re just hitting the job market?
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:36:10]
I would say I would say it it comes down to differentiators. So differentiators is that it’s it for undergrads. It’s that internship experience for master’s students. It’s that it’s that industry experience, that IBM experience. Right. And once you get into that mastered that master’s level and doctoral level, now you’re getting into certifications. Now you’re getting into that those research publications and things like that. I know that you know, I know that you’re to say, OK, get your dissertation done. You can do a publishing later. But again, I mean, you’ve got you’ve got to find you don’t have to publish. But if you if you kind of have an opportunity, I would say based on the industry you want to work in, based on your discipline, get them get those certifications. Because perfect example. I was I was hired I was hired as an adjunct at another instead of brick and mortar institution. And they say that they said just said you were the only person that did not have a doctoral degree in supply chain management that we interviewed, she said, but your certifications are a reason why you’re sitting here right now. And I got the job.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:37:22]
All right, once you’re sitting there, then you get to shine through right now is not your resume. Now, it’s not the application. Now it’s you. But but that’s after we get interviews, right?
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:37:37]
Yeah. And that’s what my mindset once I get once I get once I get that screen call deal, you have to you have to have that that confidence to have that mindset. Once they say I got a screen call, it’s done, it’s done. If you have that confidence, I think it’s going to it’s going to benefit you is going to show through. It is going to show it’s going to show your passion and enthusiasm for for for that job and for that institution and for that role.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:38:06]
Now, one hundred percent, so now what, when folks once they earn their doctoral degree, they’re going out there, maybe they’ve gotten their first job. Do you have any advice for. How they set a trajectory and move through their career, you’ve gotten to where do you think he is, your dream job? What would be your advice for somebody who has gotten their degree, maybe gotten that first step on the ladder, but then they want to keep going. Want to keep climbing?
Dr. Justin Goldston [00:38:33]
I would say and once I got once I got to Penn State, I was like, OK, what’s next? It’s like, this is my dream job. What’s next? Yeah, but and as I explained to my students, I always say you can get you can work for Tesla, you could work for Google, he could work for him. I said you don’t get complacent. As I got complacent, my first job, I got complacent and and I was traveling a lot and it got to the place where I was almost a zombie. I would I would travel. I would go I would go to my clients. I’d fly home on Friday, mow the yard, watch clothes Saturday. I’m back on the plane on Sunday. Yeah, I did that for years and years and years, so I got that mindset. I got they got ingrained in my brain and I got complacent and so. So but I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t have a goal. Yeah. So I would say to. Yes, yes. Once you get that, once you begin that, that, that, that career have a goal. I would, I would say had that’s had those stretch goals. Yeah. Have those stress to have those goals that you think are unattainable. I thought, I thought it was unobtainable to teach at Penn State and I thought unobtainable. Right. But I think that I think that that work ethic and and and, you know, I would say putting the work in because a lot of doctoral students, again, I’m real. A lot of doctors didn’t think that what she wants to get that degree, everything, everything, everything is set. But if you put the work in is set to work it out, if you put the work in the set. But if you do, there is still in my opinion. I think that. I think that. The work just began as what she what she once you defend, because now it’s time to start, now it’s time to serve, now it’s time to serve. So I would say that, you know, stretch goals, I think is my.
