Career Coaching Secrets

The "Just Start" Philosophy: Sylvanna Berkowitz on Launching Your Coaching Business

• Davis Nguyen

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Rexhen Doda interviews Sylvanna Berkowitz, a headhunter and career coach. With over a decade in recruitment, Sylvanna helps mid-level professionals with resumes and interviews. Her coaching evolved from free advice to a part-time business, "MyResumeFixer," before founding Tribe Talent Partner.

Her primary client source is LinkedIn, where she leverages her 45,000+ followers by sharing valuable content. Sylvanna's key advice is to "just start" and embrace mistakes. Her main challenge is client resistance to feedback. She encourages coaches to utilize LinkedIn to build community and find clients.

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Sylvanna Berkowitz:

That's a good question. I started five years ago. So it was certainly before Tribe Talent Partner. I was doing career coaching on a part-time basis before starting my own recruitment firm.

Rexhen Doda:

When you started this, how did it look like as a business versus when you were just doing it to help people? When you started actually charging for the service?

Sylvanna Berkowitz:

Sure. First thing I needed to do was have my own domain. So I created my domain called Hi. Welcome

Davis Nguyen:

to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Nguyen, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to seven and eight figures without burning out. Before Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven- and eight-figure career coaching businesses myself and consulted with two career coaching businesses that are now doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or just building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Rexhen Doda:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. Today my guest is Silvana Berkowitz, headhunter, career coach, LinkedIn powerhouse, and a founder of Tribe Talent Partner. With over 10 years of experience in recruitment, Silvana has helped hundreds of people land roles in project management, engineering, oil and gas, and beyond. She brings unmatched energy to the hiring, making it not only successful, but fun. After being laid off unexpectedly Silvana turned challenge into opportunity and launched her own firm. She's now on a mission to connect talent with purpose and help job seekers break through burnout and one candid conversation at a time. Silvana Welcome to the show. Excited to have you and dive into your journey.

Sylvanna Berkowitz:

Thank you so much for that warm introduction. And I'm just very happy to be here and provide as much value and insight to career coaching job seekers that might help job seekers too.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you. It's a pleasure to have you on. Tell me a little bit more about, I know you're doing this on the side, but what inspired you to start to become a career coach?

Sylvanna Berkowitz:

Very good question. So this started, I would say, five years into my recruitment career. I was talking to Can It would come naturally where they would ask if I knew anyone how to do resumes or if I knew anyone how to help out with interviews. And I'm just like, okay, I mean, I'm doing it right now. I can help you out. So I've helped out people for free in the beginning. And just my next thought process was like, wait, people charge for this. So why don't I start charging too? So I started just promoting my business just like on a natural basis. It wasn't like, you know, they call me and I'm telling them to fix their resume right away. It would just like come naturally in those conversations. And from there, I've just been doing it part-time. I would get a ton of referrals. The biggest, you know, business for me would be getting referrals from people that I've helped out in the past.

Rexhen Doda:

And when it comes to my resume fixer, is this like a business that you've had before starting this? a tribe talent partner or is it something that you started later

Sylvanna Berkowitz:

yeah that's a good question i started it um five years ago so it was certainly before tribe talent partner i was doing like career coaching on a part-time basis before starting my own recruitment firm

Rexhen Doda:

um when you started this how does it how did it look like as a business versus when you were just doing it to help people when you started actually charging uh for the service

Sylvanna Berkowitz:

sure um first thing i needed to do was have my own domain so i created And my domain called hi at my resume fixer just wanted something really easy, something I can just fix it, have conversations from it. So that was the first thing. The second thing was to create a website. It wasn't my own website. It's called a website. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's called topmate.com and it's really easy. I just create a profile. I include my email there and people can just find me. Like if they were Googling, you know, you know, a search function on Google. So that was the next, you know, second step. And that's just my process.

Rexhen Doda:

And is there a specific group of people that you work with, with Myers-Maffex? Or is there a group of, like, what is the ideal client that you work with, even on a part-time basis?

Sylvanna Berkowitz:

The ideal client, most of them are actually mid-level professionals. So mid-level professionals, folks that sit in their industry for five to 10 years or more, and also some clients who've been in their company for a really long time and don't know how to fix their resume, don't know how to start those interview conversations. So those are my ideal clients because they need the most support.

Rexhen Doda:

where do you find them what marketing channel works best in terms like connecting with them

Sylvanna Berkowitz:

the best platform for me and what's worked for me is via is through LinkedIn I have over 45,000 followers on LinkedIn that I built over 10 years and it's it's as simple as me posting a resume tip or an interview tip and from there it resonates with a lot of people because it helps them out it's a free, you know, it's like a free, you know, tip for them to like just easily read a LinkedIn post. And that's where, you know, I get, you know, some people and grow my following on there and gain more and more people to reach out to me.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah. So basically, when it comes to getting coaching clients, you're getting them through the content that you're putting out because of the large following right now. Correct. Cool. Is there something you wish you had known when you first started MyResumeFixer? Is there an unexpected lesson learned from your experience as a career coach?

Sylvanna Berkowitz:

Absolutely. There's so many. But the biggest thing for me, for everyone out there, is to just start. was just very hesitant to start because I'm like, okay, like, how do I even do this? Do I need to, you know, talk to a professional or a specialist? And the biggest thing is to just like jumpstart head on and make mistakes along the way. Because you can think about starting your own career consulting business. You can start reading as many books as you want. But if you're not starting, if you're not just diving head in, you're not going to start. So that would be the biggest tip.

Rexhen Doda:

Do you find that there are any challenges while doing your career coaching on the side? Do you see any challenges with either the clients you're working with or... Do you often get people that are not the people you want to work with or is there any challenge in doing this on the side?

Sylvanna Berkowitz:

Yeah, the only challenge I can you know, I can think of would just be just someone who's really difficult, you know, to work with. I could provide them as much as I, as needed for the resume, for their interviewing process. But if they're resistant to feedback, then that makes my job hard because you're not listening to, you know, my suggestions and you're, they're absolutely welcome to, you know, you know, take the tip or not take, you know, the, consulting you know tip so it's yeah but that would be like the biggest thing would be just difficult people

Rexhen Doda:

yeah well thank you so much I know it's been a quick episode but is there any advice any other advice you would give to even though you're not in this pursuit yourself but since you've had experience growing your other business what advice would you give to other career coaches who are looking to scale their impact as if you were trying to increase my resume fixer and make that your main business

Sylvanna Berkowitz:

sure I would say utilize LinkedIn as the platform to use because that's where your clients are and it's a social media platform so there's so many job seekers on LinkedIn Create value in your LinkedIn posting. Create a community on LinkedIn. And that's where you can gain your customers.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you so much, Silvana. For anyone who wants to connect with you or find you, they can find you on LinkedIn at Silvana Berkowitz. And for anyone who wants to reach out and connect with you, they can do that there. I think the other website might not be the best place a place to reach out to. But let me know if like any other career coach wants to get advice or reach out to you, they could on LinkedIn.

Sylvanna Berkowitz:

Yes. Thank you so much.

Davis Nguyen:

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe to YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This conversation was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to seven and eight figures without burning out. To learn more about Purple Circle, our community, and how we can help you grow your business, visit joinpurplesircle.com.